LKP to ask Park Geun-hye to leave

Measure may trigger defections of some Bareun lawmakers

The largest conservative Liberty Korea Party (LKP) plans to ask former President Park Geun-hye to leave the party “voluntarily” this week, party officials said Sunday.

If Park rejects their request, the party can expel Park in 10 days under the LKP’s membership rules.

Depriving Park of party membership is in line with the party’s plan to merge with the minor conservative Bareun Party. Some members of the Bareun Party have vowed to rejoin the LKP if the party expels Park and her loyalists.

Last December, anti-Park lawmakers in the Saenuri Party broke away from the party and founded the Bareun Party, and the Saenuri Party became the LKP.

The LKP measure may divide the Bareun Party because the party’s former presidential candidate Rep. Yoo Seong-min has rejected combining forces with the LKP. Against Yoo, those leaning towards integration have attempted to rejoin the LKP before the Bareun Party elects a new leader on Nov. 30.

They are justifying the integration citing the “reform” of the LKP as shown in its motion to abandon the disgraced ex-president and her staunch followers.

Earlier on Sept. 13, the reform panel of the LKP urged the party leadership to nullify Park’s party membership.

“The LKP should make efforts to embrace the defectors to jointly fight Moon Jae-in,” chief of the reform panel Lew Seok-choon said at a press conference last month.

LKP Chairman Hong Joon-pyo on Friday formed a committee in charge of pushing for conservative unity. Three LKP lawmakers — Reps. Lee Cheol-woo, Hong Moon-pyo and Kim Sung-tae — are tasked with inviting Bareun Party lawmakers back to the LKP.

If Park and her followers are expelled, around seven to nine Bareun lawmakers — Reps. Kim Moo-sung, Joo Ho-young, Kim Young-woo, Kim Yong-tae, Lee Jong-koo, Hwang Young-cheul and Cheong Yang-seog — are likely to rejoin the LKP. However, the number could decrease if far-rightists in the LKP remain stubborn in defense of pro-Park lawmakers.

Expelling from the LKP two core pro-Park lawmakers — Seo Chung-won and Choi Kyung-hwan — has been disputed since they were already punished by the party’s for- mer interim leader Im Myung-jin last winter. “If that’s true, only one or two Bareun members would make up their minds or nobody will leave in the end,” said a Bareun Party lawmaker who chose to stay with the splinter party.

If more than 15 Bareun lawmakers join the LKP, the LKP can hold the majority of the National Assembly, which will empower its influence as a leader of the opposition bloc. In contrast, only one lawmaker’s return to the LKP means a severe blow for the Bareun Party with 20 seats.

According to the National Assembly law, a party at least 20 seats can form a negotiation body which ensures considerable government subsidies and decision-making authorities. Currently the party receives about 2 billion won ($1.77 million) and the amount is likely to plunge to 600 million won if it loses its negotiation body status.