Yoo Seung-min: "Is It Right to Defend the President When He's Not a Gangster?"

"Reflect and Apologize to the People First"
"Party Division Makes It Hard for Conservative Politics to Survive"
"Struggling Will Only Hand Power Over to the Democratic Party"

On the 14th, as the impeachment motion against President Yoon Seok-yeol was passed, former People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Seung-min criticized the party and emphasized efforts for reform.

On the 16th, Yoo appeared on CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' and shared his thoughts on the martial law situation. He said, "(Martial law) was unimaginable. I am truly sorry that we could not prevent this unfortunate event in constitutional history and that the president produced by our party committed such an act," adding, "I think our party should reflect and apologize to the people first. But we still haven't done that." He continued, "The more we shout opposition to the impeachment, the further we distance ourselves from public sentiment. If this continues, we will not be able to win any elections, whether presidential or general," and warned, "If this causes division within the party, conservative politics will struggle to survive for a considerable time. President Yoon did do wrong."

Yoo Seung-min, former member of the People Power Party. Photo by Yoon Dong-ju

Yoo criticized, "It was wrong to oppose the impeachment as a party line. Han Dong-hoon, the People Power Party leader, should have risked his position to allow free voting according to each member's conscience," and said, "Seeing the current division in the party breaks my heart. The overwhelming majority of the people support the impeachment, but we have gone in a completely different direction from public sentiment." He added, "During the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye, Acting Chief Justice Lee Jung-mi of the Constitutional Court read the sentence, 'Park Geun-hye is removed for betraying the trust of the people.' This 'betrayal of trust' is the most important part," and criticized, "A proper conservative party should directly break the betrayer frame. We are not gangsters, so is it right to continue protecting a president who committed such a serious crime?" Furthermore, he explained, "Our party has learned nothing from the impeachment eight years ago," and said, "At that time, the party was on the brink of collapse and conservative politics was about to fail, so we should have innovated and worked hard for a new conservative politics that the people could love, but we failed to do so."

Yoo also stated, "Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party, is truly a problematic person. He is a criminal suspect with a wide range of petty crimes," and argued, "The foundation of the country is the economy and security, but he only wavers and holds many terrible ideas. I believe he should not become president." He continued, "The People Power Party must thoroughly reflect and apologize at this point and find a new path. If we can present a verified candidate, what is there to fear from Lee? If we keep struggling in the swamp of impeachment, we will hand over power to the Democratic Party," but also said, "It has only been two days since the impeachment motion was passed, so I don't think it's the time to talk about the next presidential election. We should wait for the Constitutional Court's ruling before discussing it."