SEOUL, Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung and Cho Kuk, the scandal-tainted former justice minister who recently formed a new party, pledged Tuesday to work together to overcome what they call the Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s “prosecutor dictatorship.”
Their meeting, the first since Cho’s new party launched last month, took place as the approval rating of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) has continued to decline in recent weeks, with the April 10 parliamentary elections just a month away.
“All political powers must cooperate in order to pass judgment on the Yoon Suk Yeol administration through the general elections,” Lee said during the meeting at the National Assembly.
In response, Cho expressed his wish for the DP to secure victory by attracting moderate and rational conservative blocs disappointed by the Yoon administration.
“Only through cooperation can we overcome the rivers of Yoon Suk Yeol and his prosecutor dictatorship,” Cho said.
The meeting took place after the DP initially refused to u
nite with Cho, a former star law professor at Seoul National University and one of former President Moon Jae-in’s closest aides, due presumably to concerns over his ongoing criminal trials.
An appeals court recently confirmed a two-year prison sentence for Cho over academic fraud involving his children and unlawful interference with a government inspection.
Their meeting also coincided with the DP grappling with factional rifts over candidate nominations, which party officials attribute to a downward trend in its approval rating.
According to a survey by Realmeter released Monday, the ruling People Power Party’s approval rating surpassed that of the DP outside of the margin of error for the first time in a year.
In an apparent move to overcome the crisis, Lee convened a party leadership meeting Monday and instructed officials to assess public sentiment and conditions in different districts.
A growing number of non-mainstream members who were excluded from the nomination or disadvantaged in the process ar
e defecting from the party amid an escalating dispute over what they perceive as unfair candidate nominations. They have accused the DP of sidelining those not aligned with leader Lee.
“There may be various reasons for the decline in approval ratings, but internally, it appears that dissatisfaction with candidate nominations has had an impact,” a party official said on the condition of anonymity.
Source: Yonhap News Agency
