Meeting with Former National Assembly Secretary-General Lee Kwang-jae Postponed
Democratic Party Launches Overnight Sit-ins Until Impeachment Ruling
Concerns Over Delays in Bipartisan Council Discussions on Supplementary Budget and Other Issues
Amid the political turmoil following the release of President Yoon Suk-yeol, Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, faces inevitable setbacks in his right-wing policy shift and efforts to unify the anti-Lee (Bi-Myung) faction with an eye on the presidential race. The Democratic Party has launched an all-out campaign including nightly sit-ins every day until the ruling on President Yoon’s impeachment trial, raising concerns that pressing national issues such as the supplementary budget (chugyeong) may be sidelined.
According to political circles on the 10th, Speaker Woo Won-shik announced the convening of a bipartisan national affairs council at the National Assembly in the afternoon. However, the Democratic Party’s attendance remains uncertain. Even if the meeting proceeds as scheduled, intensified confrontation between camps after President Yoon’s release casts doubt on whether key issues such as the supplementary budget, semiconductor law, and national pension parameter reform will be discussed properly.
Immediately after President Yoon’s release, the Democratic Party convened an emergency party meeting and decided to hold two party meetings daily at the National Assembly until the impeachment ruling, followed by midnight sit-ins. On the morning of the same day, the five opposition parties including the Democratic Party will hold a press conference to accuse Prosecutor General Sim Woo-jung of abandoning the directive for President Yoon’s release and the immediate appeal. The Democratic Party leadership will hold an emergency party meeting in the afternoon, followed by an emergency action rally near Gyeongbokgung Station in Seoul. Afterwards, they will return to the National Assembly for another emergency party meeting and hold a relay condemnation speech against President Yoon’s release at midnight. In effect, the party is concentrating its efforts on an offensive against the government.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is adjusting his glasses at the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly on the 10th. 2025.3.10 Photo by Kim Hyun-min
Lee’s efforts to unify the Bi-Myung faction have also been halted. Immediately after President Yoon’s release, Lee postponed a scheduled meeting the next day with former National Assembly Secretary-General Lee Kwang-jae of the Bi-Myung faction. The party stated that the schedule was deferred due to the political situation, but no specific date has been confirmed. Political circles viewed Lee’s suspension of meetings with the Bi-Myung faction following Yoon’s release positively, as it helped ease recent controversies. Notably, Lee’s remarks on September 2023 regarding the approval of his arrest warrant, made on the YouTube channel “Maebulsyo” on the 5th, had raised suspicions of collusion between the Bi-Myung faction and the prosecution, which have now subsided. On the other hand, some interpret that failure to resolve controversies with the Bi-Myung faction could lead to their recurrence in the future.
Political circles also predict that President Yoon’s release could indirectly affect Lee’s second trial for election law violations scheduled for the 26th. The Democratic Party immediately blamed Prosecutor General Sim Woo-jung for the cause of President Yoon’s release and called for his resignation, but has refrained from directly commenting on the court’s decision to cancel the detention. The ruling party interprets this as Lee minimizing criticism of the judiciary ahead of the second trial verdict. At the Supreme Council meeting that day, Lee continued his criticism of the prosecution, saying, “I suspect that the prosecution not only actively cooperated but also engaged in key tasks.”
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