"Oops, It Was Insufficient"... Han Dong-hoon Says He Learned an 'Expensive Lesson' from the Korea-Han Alliance

Han Dong-hoon Publishes "The People Come First" ③
"Han-Han Alliance: Good Intentions, Bad Results"
"The More Urgent the Situation, the More Caution Was Needed... Didn't Expect the Intense Backlash"

Han Dong-hoon, former leader of the People Power Party, reflected on the so-called 'Han-Han Alliance' in which he and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo jointly issued a national address on the 26th, saying, "Although the intention was good, the outcome was bad," and added, "We learned an expensive lesson."

In his book "The People Come First," published on the same day, former leader Han described the background of why he and Prime Minister Han issued the national address together.

Prime Minister Han and former leader Han issued the national address on December 8, the day after the first impeachment motion against President Yoon Seok-youl was rejected. Both expressed their commitment to an orderly resignation and to doing their best to manage the political turmoil, but they faced criticism from opposition parties and others, who called it a "second civil war."

Former leader Han explained, "The intention was to deliver a message to reassure the public, and on the other hand, to pressure the president to hand over state affairs to the prime minister as promised and step aside." He wrote that the reason for the joint address was "to symbolically show that the party supports the prime minister's execution of state affairs."

Former leader Han recalled, "There was also a sense of urgency to issue the joint address because the president was moving to continue performing presidential duties contrary to his promise to the public," and added, "I did not anticipate that this would lead to a concentrated attack from the Democratic Party and the so-called pro-Yoon group."

He also expressed his feelings about how the good intentions led to a bad outcome. He wrote, "The more urgent it was, the more carefully we should have thought about how it would be perceived," and "At first, I thought the criticism was just nitpicking, but as time passed, I realized 'Oops'." He explained that he did not consider that if his proposal succeeded, it might be seen as a personal achievement and provoke resentment.

Former leader Han added, "Politics is truly dynamic, and because of this incident, my position in managing the martial law situation weakened," and concluded, "We learned an expensive lesson."