'Park's Removal and Impeachment' Spark Heated 'Traitor Frame' Debate Between Hong Joon-pyo and Yoo Seung-min

Yoo Seung-min "Yoon Seok-yeol and Hong Joon-pyo Both Betrayed Me Back Then"
Hong Joon-pyo "Only Shared Party with Park... No Personal Relationship"

Daegu Mayor Hong Jun-pyo and former People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Seung-min engaged in a war of words over the 'traitor frame' imposed on them for supporting the expulsion and impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye.

The heated exchange began with Yoo's remarks. On the 8th, Yoo said on CPBC Radio's 'Kim Hye-young's News Sympathy' regarding the 'traitor frame' attached to him, "They resort to that frame because they lack the qualification or ability to discuss my political philosophy or the rightness or wrongness of the policies I advocate."

He continued, "If you look at it that way, President Yoon Seok-youl is the one who defied former President Park Geun-hye, was demoted, later investigated and prosecuted her, and sentenced her to 22 years in prison after a 45-year sentence was requested," adding, "Not only President Yoon but also his close aides, the so-called Yoon Core Group, including Kwon Seong-dong, Jang Je-won, and Daegu Mayor Hong Jun-pyo, were all traitors back then."

Hong Joon-pyo, Mayor of Daegu (left), Yoo Seung-min, former member of the People Power Party. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

Yoo said, "Mayor Hong Jun-pyo flatters former President Park and her pro-Park faction when it suits him, but when he no longer needs them, he suddenly acts like Chunhyang but turns out to be Hyangdan and tried to expel Park from the party," adding, "Loyalty to a person is not a concept that fits in a democratic republic; the idea of loyalty and devotion from the royal era does not apply to us."

In response, Mayor Hong raised his voice, saying, "Stop dragging me into this to escape the traitor frame imposed on me." On the 9th, he posted on his Facebook, "I am far from a faction politician who has survived by groveling under someone," and said, "Even Lee Myung-bak (MB), with whom I had a brotherly relationship, checked and pushed me out during his five-year term, but I remained loyal whenever MB was in trouble."

Mayor Hong pointed out that Yoo's 'traitor frame' stems from his background as a former secretary to President Park and his history of running as a pro-Park representative in various intra-party elections. He said, "Those who stabbed former President Park Geun-hye in the back during the impeachment deserve to be called traitors," adding, "But I only shared the party with former President Park and had no personal trust relationship with her."

Regarding the 2017 expulsion of former President Park from the Liberty Korea Party (the predecessor of the People Power Party), he explained, "I took charge of the party to rebuild the Korean conservative group devastated by former President Park, and before the local elections, I took full responsibility to break away from the impeachment frame and expelled former President Park from the party."

On the metaphor "thought she was Chunhyang but turned out to be Hyangdan," he said, "It was a criticism of the incompetence that allowed the sitting president to collapse so helplessly and destroy the Korean conservative group," adding, "Unlike former lawmaker Yoo Seung-min, I have never betrayed anyone based on political interests."