Lee Jae-myung's First Year in Office... "Yoon, Clarify Your Position on Fukushima" All-Out Offensive

Lee Jae-myung's 1st Anniversary Today
Strengthening Opposition Attacks Without Commemorative Message
Judicial Risks Hampering... Concerns Over Expansion of Frontlines

"The President (Yoon) must also state his position on the Fukushima nuclear wastewater issue and the Yangpyeong highway gate."

On the 28th, marking his first anniversary in office, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, said, "The president must never forget, even for a moment, that he is not a ruler who dominates the people but a representative." There was no message from him on his first anniversary as party leader that day. However, he strongly criticized the Yoon administration on multiple fronts.

Referring to reports that President Yoon got angry in a meeting to prevent Marine Corps 1st Division Commander Im Seong-geun from being held responsible for the death of Corporal Chae, who died in the flood disaster, Lee said, "It is the president’s responsibility to strictly hold accountable and ensure such incidents do not recur," and pressured, "The truth must be revealed." Regarding the appointment of Lee Dong-gwan as chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, he criticized it as "a regressive attempt to recycle the 'MB (Lee Myung-bak) regime’s Goebbels' into the 'Yoon Seok-yeol regime’s Goebbels'." On government budget formulation, he pointed out it as "a futile and petty obsession to erase all traces of the previous administration."

Lee’s detailed criticism of not only the Fukushima contaminated water issue but also concerns over media control and the government’s decision to cut major research and development (R&D) budgets is interpreted as an effort to consolidate internal unity through offensive tactics against the ruling party.

Lee was inaugurated as the leader of the main opposition party last August with a support rate approaching 78%. At that time, he promoted the slogan of a "competent alternative party" and focused on "people’s livelihood," embarking on nationwide tours whenever possible. However, judicial risks immediately hampered him both inside and outside the party after taking office. After losing the presidential election and narrowly winning the by-election (Incheon Gyeyang-eul) three months later, he revived as the Democratic Party leader, but the judicial risks were an expected scenario. On December 22 last year, coinciding with his birthday, he was summoned by prosecutors over allegations of donations to Seongnam FC, marking the start of a political investigation.

Internal party divisions began to deepen from that point. The anti-Lee faction (Bi-Lee faction) demanded his resignation, saying, "Do not expand Lee’s judicial risks to the entire party." Especially, factional conflicts over candidate nominations for the general election were expected to intensify, and this is currently materializing. At the end of June, the party launched an Innovation Committee to restore the party’s credibility, which had plummeted due to controversies such as lawmaker Kim Nam-guk’s cryptocurrency scandal and the 2021 party convention cash envelope incident, but it ended early, gaining only the stigma of being "Lee Jae-myung’s private organization" rather than a "savior of the Democratic Party."

In particular, the proposal to exclude delegates from voting and change the nomination rules deepened the conflict between pro-Lee and anti-Lee factions. Currently, the voting weight in the national delegate convention (party convention) that elects the party leadership is 40% for party members with voting rights, 30% for delegates, 25% for opinion polls, and 5% for general party members. To address the issue that delegate votes are weighted too heavily, the Innovation Committee proposed 70% one-person-one-vote by party members with voting rights and 30% national opinion polls. This is effectively a proposal to abolish the delegate system, which has caused strong backlash from the anti-Lee faction.

Because of this, Lee has focused all his efforts on offensive tactics against the ruling party over the past year. From the time of his inauguration last year, the Lee Jae-myung administration, burdened with "judicial risks" like a tumor, has emphasized being a "competent alternative party" through livelihood legislation to carry the system through to next year’s general election, while strengthening offensive measures against the ruling party such as activities to block the discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant and the "1 special prosecutor and 4 national investigations," focusing on internal unity.

However, since both special prosecutors and national investigations must be conducted through negotiations with the ruling party, there are criticisms that these will remain mere slogans. Even within the Democratic Party, there are skeptical views about conducting multiple national investigations simultaneously, which are difficult to achieve even one success. The argument is that handling too many issues in parallel and expanding the front lines actually disperses party strength.

Meanwhile, Kim Ki-hyun, leader of the People Power Party, harshly criticized at the Supreme Council meeting that day, "Over the past year, the Democratic Party has been thoroughly focused on shielding itself and has neglected the people’s livelihood," adding, "The Democratic Party has only become competent at using and managing a blindly loyal hardline support base, becoming a Galapagos party disconnected from public sentiment."