Kim Moonsoo, former presidential candidate of the People Power Party, launched a scathing criticism against the party on June 4.
At the party's election campaign committee disbandment ceremony held at the party headquarters in Yeouido that afternoon, Kim said, "I am truly sorry to all of you," and added, "Watching President Lee Jaemyung's inauguration today, I felt that I have committed a grave historical sin." He then performed a deep bow, saying, "With that in mind, I offer my deepest apology to the people and my fellow party members."
Regarding the reasons for the party's defeat in the presidential election, Kim stated, "Our party lacks a fundamental understanding and conviction of democracy, as well as a strong sense of duty to uphold it." He continued, "This manifested in the unimaginable act of declaring martial law." He further said, "Our party elected a president who imposed martial law, and the president's will was unilaterally enforced within the party. This calls for deep self-reflection." He added, "In politics, the means are as important as the goals, but there was no internal force within our party to restrain the president from using highly inappropriate means."
Kim also directly criticized the controversy over the 'candidate replacement' that arose during the process of selecting the party's presidential candidate. He said, "Intra-party democracy has collapsed. The process of selecting the party leader and public office candidates was utterly undemocratic. Even a child could see that the way we selected public office candidates made no sense." He emphasized, "Deep reflection and reform are necessary."
Kim remarked, "There should be limits to how much we fight among ourselves, but the rules themselves have not been established." He continued, "We need more democratic and open internal party rules for how to handle differences of opinion."
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