Kwon Explains Visit as "Personal,"
But Political Implications Such as Approval Ratings Analyzed
Concerns Over "Rightward Shift" Inside and Outside the Party
Kim Jaeseop Says "Feels Trapped in the Past"
On the 3rd, Kwon Young-se, the Emergency Committee Chairman, and Kwon Seong-dong, the Floor Leader, the two top leaders of the People Power Party, will visit President Yoon Seok-yeol, who is detained at Seoul Detention Center. This is analyzed as a preliminary move to continue consolidating the conservative forces, pressure the Constitutional Court, and respond to the possibility of an early presidential election.
At around 11 a.m. on the same day, Kwon and Kwon are scheduled to have a 20-minute meeting with President Yoon at Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, exchanging New Year's greetings and discussing his health condition. It is also known that Na Kyung-won, a member of the People Power Party, will accompany them on this visit.
The two leaders explained that this is a personal visit by Kwon Young-se and Kwon Seong-dong, who have had a friendship with President Yoon since the past, rather than an official schedule of the People Power Party. At a press briefing held at the National Assembly the day before, Floor Leader Kwon drew a line by saying, "It is a natural duty as a human being to visit and encourage a friend who is in a difficult situation," emphasizing the personal nature of the visit.
However, following the presidential office staff on the 31st of last month, the fact that the two top leaders of the ruling party are visiting President Yoon together on this day inevitably carries political implications. The intention is understood to be that the People Power Party aims to firmly consolidate the conservative forces, buoyed by rising public opinion against impeachment and increasing party approval ratings.
Recently, President Yoon’s legal team submitted a petition urging the avoidance of the impeachment trial, citing concerns about the tendencies of some Constitutional Court justices such as Moon Hyung-bae, Lee Mi-seon, and Jung Gye-seon, as well as the actions of their relatives. Meanwhile, the People Power Party leadership is also pressuring the Constitutional Court with similar logic, stimulating their hardline supporters.
Kwon Young-se, Emergency Response Committee Chairman of the People Power Party, and Kwon Seong-dong, Floor Leader, are leaving the meeting room after the Emergency Response Committee meeting held at the National Assembly on the 3rd. Photo by Kim Hyun-min
At the Emergency Committee meeting held at the National Assembly that morning, Chairman Kwon pointed out Ma Eun-hyuk’s past activities with the Incheon Regional Democratic Laborers’ Federation (Inmin Noryeon) and said, "If candidate Ma becomes a Constitutional Court justice, four out of the nine justices (Moon Hyung-bae, Acting Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court; Justices Lee Mi-seon and Jung Gye-seon; and candidate Ma) will be from the Uri Law Research Association. The criticism that there is a 'Hanahoe' within the court is not baseless."
Because of this, there are even voices within the party suggesting that the visit by Chairman Kwon and Floor Leader Kwon is an attempt to align with President Yoon’s prison politics.
Kim Jae-seop, a member of the People Power Party, posted on social media the day before, "During the process where the president declared an unexpected martial law and was impeached because of it, what did the pro-Yoon faction do?" He criticized, "Why are they fulfilling their human duties in this way, and why only now?"
On the same day, Kim also told reporters at the National Assembly, "We need an emergency committee that competes in innovation rather than one stuck in the past, but the image of going to meet the president feels like being mired in the past," expressing concern about the party’s rightward shift.
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