Jung Chung-rae, leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, drew heavy media attention on Tuesday when he attended the welcoming ceremony for President Lee Jae-myung's return from his Europe tour alongside the party leadership, after having skipped the send-off ceremony last week. Jung bowed 90 degrees to greet President Lee upon his arrival at Seoul Airport in Seongnam, and Lee replied, "Well done." Although it has long been customary for the ruling party leader to see off and welcome the president on official trips, the reality that news of Jung's welcoming of the returning president drew prominent coverage—along with the controversy over his absence from the send-off—attests to abnormal currents in the relationship between the party and the presidential office.
Underlying the tension between the party and the presidential office is a competition for future party leadership within the party's mainstream, which has split into a pro-Lee faction and a pro-presidential-office faction since taking power. In particular, ahead of the August 17 party convention, Jung has actively championed the defense of the "one member, one vote" system, which is backed by hardline party members, raising the prospect of a bid for re-election. Within the pro-Lee faction, Prime Minister Kim Min-seok announced his intention to resign and signaled a run for the party leadership. Conflict between the pro-Lee and pro-presidential-office factions over the ruling party's performance in the June 3 local elections—including its failure to reclaim the Seoul mayoralty—is also intensifying. While Jung declared it "a major nationwide victory," the pro-Lee faction raised the issue of accountability and pressed Jung to step down, saying, "What the Democratic Party needs is a single engine." After welcoming the returning President Lee, Jung held a general meeting of lawmakers and said, "Let us rally tightly around President Lee and unite our hearts and efforts together," but remained silent on his own position, which is the fuse of the internal strife.
The ruling party must set aside its infighting and focus on the livelihoods of the people. Otherwise, the situation seen in a recent Realmeter poll—in which the Democratic Party's approval rating of 38% was overtaken by the People Power Party's 44.3%—could become entrenched. The Democratic Party leadership should first reflect on its high-handed conduct to date. It will also have to abandon its insistence on taking the chairmanship of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee for the ruling party. The ruling party now faces a pile of homework, including instability in housing prices, reform of the National Election Commission, and the unresolved issue of Strait of Hormuz transit fees left incomplete after the end of the Iran war. The Democratic Party must keenly recognize the cooling public sentiment and restore cooperative governance with the opposition. The news the public wants is not word of the ruling party leader welcoming the returning president, but the good news that the party, government, presidential office and both ruling and opposition parties have joined forces to resolve the crises in the economy, security and people's livelihoods.
