Park Jiwon to Yoo Seungmin: "Thank You for Refusing Prime Minister Post... An Almost Far-Right Figure"

Yoo Seungmin: "I Was Offered the Position and Rejected It Multiple Times"
Park Jiwon: "Yoo Holds Extreme Right-Wing Views on North Korea and Labor Issues"

Park Jiwon, Democratic Party of Korea member. Photo by Kim Hyunmin

As former People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Seungmin revealed that he was offered the position of prime minister by then-presidential candidate Lee Jaemyung just before the June 3 presidential election and declined, Park Jiwon, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, expressed his gratitude.

On January 2, Park Jiwon appeared on MBC's "Kim Jongbae's Focus" and said, "Although Yoo Seungmin's character and abilities are highly regarded in political circles, if the president or his close aides had asked me about recruiting him as prime minister, I would have definitely opposed it."

Park recalled, "When I was once the leader of the People's Party, Ahn Cheolsoo, Yoo Seungmin, and Hong Joonpyo tried to unify their candidacies. At that time, when I met Yoo, I found that while Hong Joonpyo was quite flexible regarding North Korea policy and the Sunshine Policy, Yoo Seungmin made scrapping the Sunshine Policy and demanding an apology a condition for unification."

He also mentioned his past experiences debating Yoo on television several times. Park said, "On issues such as North Korea, labor, and welfare, Yoo is so far removed that he is almost on the extreme right. Yoo's refusal was the right thing for the president's success. If I had known about it, I would have advised the president not to proceed."

He added, "When you look at Korean politicians, their identities are always clearly revealed on issues related to North Korea, welfare, and labor. The Democratic Party aims to deter war through inter-Korean relations, peace, exchange, and cooperation, but Yoo Seungmin holds such extremely right-wing and conservative views on these matters that, in my judgment, it would be impossible to work with him."

Previously, after President Lee recently appointed former People Power Party lawmaker Lee Hyehoon as Minister of Planning and Budget, reports emerged in political circles that Yoo had also been offered a position. In response, Yoo stated on a radio program that it was true he had been offered the prime minister position and that he had declined multiple times.

Yoo said, "In February last year, I heard from a certain Democratic Party lawmaker that if Lee Jaemyung, then leader of the Democratic Party, came to power, he wanted me to serve as prime minister. I told him I had no intention of doing so and, after that, stopped answering his calls."