Rep. Hong Sa-Deok, ¡°President Lee Must Resign¡°

The disputes in the Grand National Party are becoming more serious. Rep. Hong Sa-Deok (GNP) hinted the possibility of his defection from GNP, requesting for the withdrawal of party`s president Lee Hoi-Chang from the frontline and the introduction of a collective leadership system before the Presidential election. Choi Byung-Ryul, the vice President of GNP, also raised issues related to the core personnel of Mr. Lee.

Rep. Hong held a press conference at the National Assembly and asserted that“ [president Lee Hoi-Chang] must introduce the collective leadership system during the party`s national convention in May in order to make a room for the defected Rep. Park Geun-Hae to return to the party and to prevent from following defections.”

He also added, “to complete this urgent mission, president Lee must withdraw from the frontline of the party and instead senior vice president Choi Byung-Ryul must take over the presidency as an acting president of the party.”

He did not mention about the possibility of defection explicitly but hinted his intention to run for Seoul mayor after defecting from the party, saying “I will prove to the 10 million Seoulins that there are something that you can not do only with money in this world.”

Vice president Lee Boo-Young held a press conference and reiterated for the establishment of an emergency countermeasure organization after the resignation of the party`s president, re-deliberation of the competition for Seoul City mayor, party`s decision of the presidential candidacy after the local government election in June.

With regard to the press conference of Rep. Hong, vice president Choi expressed his objection, saying “Party`s solidarity is a priority now.” But he demanded the reprimand of the close aides of Mr. Lee, criticizing that “the official line of the party recommend the president to embrace Rep. Park, who was about to defect. But the non-official line and some close aides of Mr. Lee expressed, “it does not matter.”

Later Secretary General Lee Sang-Deuk called an emergency meeting of the party`s big 3 and expressed their regrets concerning the acts of raising issues, while the party`s president is absent, that were decided as a party`s platform through a democratic process.

In-Soo Song issong@donga.com · Sung-Won Park swpark@donga.com