Yoo Seung-min says, `Noting to take except for a pack of cigarette`

“Well, I have nothing to take except for a pack of cigarette in a drawer…”

Former floor leader Yoo Seung-min of the Saenuri Party talked to himself while looking around his empty office on Thursday morning and smiling bitterly. “I had never missed National Defense Committee meeting but recently was not able to attend it. I have to take care of local constituencies and do the work at Seoul Metropolitan Council,” told reporters when asked about his plan for the future.

Before leaving the office, he shook hands with every staff of the party secretariat who had aided him. Yoo didn’t attend the general meeting that was held in the afternoon of the day. He must have felt uncomfortable when he had to sit on the floor leader’s seat at the end of the National Assembly main chamber.

Immediately after he resigned on the previous day, he had a meal at a seolleongtang (beef bone soup) restaurant in Seoul before he went for 5-hour binge drinking with his used-to-be delegation in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province. They used to dine together at Gimpo which is closer to Yeouido as the place is a local constituency for vice floor leader Hong Cheol-ho. Some 10 lawmakers were at present which include Kim Se-yeon, Min Byeong-joo, Kim Hui-gook and Lee Jong-hoon. “It is regretful that you all had gone through a lot of distress because of me. I appreciate all you’ve done for me,” the former floor leader said. “I hope all of you survive from the general election next year.” In the beginning of the get-together, they are said to exchange casual conversation such as Yoo’s college years living in a boarding house. It is said, however, that the atmosphere became gloomy and some were even crying. Arriving his house at Gaepo-dong by around 11:20 p.m., he stepped in his house, saying “I drank a little bit” with the reddish face. Under a faint smile, he looked very tired.

In the meantime, the Saenuri Party has decided to launch an election committee for floor leader (Commissioner Seo Sang-gi) and elect the next leader on July 14. At a closed-door supreme council meeting on the same day, common consensus was that a “figure whose political motivation is not based on metropolitan area” should be chosen as the next leader. Some from the pro-Park (pro Park Geun-hye) faction recommended the ruling party’s chief policymaker Won Yoo-cheol but Chairman Kim Moo-sung is said to have responded, “The supreme council should not decide a specific figure.” It appears that candidates will be narrowed down during the weekend.

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