The National Assembly, split in two. It is not the assembly that is split, but the people. [Graphics=Hanmi Ilbo]

With the one-year anniversary of the December 3rd emergency martial law and the 100th day of People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyuk's inauguration coinciding, public attention on the year-end political landscape is focused on "December 3rd," which is just a week away. Although the National Assembly continues to be fraught with conflict and disruptions, tensions are rapidly escalating as it is anticipated that the political messages to be delivered around December 3rd will converge into a political conclusion. 

With local elections, a mid-term evaluation of the administration, just six months away, the People Power Party is strengthening the narrative of government responsibility by linking emergency martial law and the Daejang-dong scandal as its two main pillars. While the Democratic Party appears to be focusing on defense and obstruction, the government is seeking to gain control of the civil servant organization through a task force (TF). Analysts are commenting that "politics is being structured not as political disputes, but as battlefronts."

The first pillar of controversy is emergency martial law. 

The Democratic Party is escalating its offensive, labeling it as "an act of violence akin to rebellion." In contrast, the People Power Party draws a line, stating, "The legal requirements for emergency martial law are entirely different from those of rebellion, and the judgment is for the courts to make." Amidst the amplification and overheating of the debate over emergency martial law, which is cycling through "politics–media–politics," there are criticisms that the issue is devolving into a "frame competition" rather than focusing on its essence.

The second pillar is the controversy over the abandonment of the Daejang-dong appeal. 

This issue has expanded beyond the judgment within the prosecution to become a matter of the administration's perception of the rule of law, emerging as a key point of contention for the year-end political landscape. The People Power Party criticizes, "The administration has voluntarily abandoned the opportunity to protect 800 billion won of the people's money," positioning the Daejang-dong frame as its core political message. The Democratic Party counters, "There were no political considerations in the process of abandoning the appeal," but the controversy is not subsiding easily as statements from those involved in abandoning the appeal (prosecutors) are being successively revealed.

During his nationwide tour, People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyuk declared, "Abandoning the Daejang-dong appeal is equivalent to abandoning the people," linking the controversies over emergency martial law and Daejang-dong into a single narrative. His message is evaluated as a strategy that simultaneously targets the administration's "perception of power" and "perception of the rule of law." His remark, "I will finalize the party's message around December 3rd," is being interpreted as a precursor to a political declaration regarding emergency martial law, thus heightening interest.

The third issue is the Kim Hyun-ji controversy. 

The suspicion of prior coordination between the Presidential Office and the Democratic Party regarding the National Assembly attendance of Kim Hyun-ji fueled confusion. Subsequently, information related to Kim Hyun-ji, which spread primarily through YouTube, recorded explosive view counts, causing embarrassment for the ruling party.

Although it appears to have subsided for now, many assess it as a latent fuse that could be reignited at any moment depending on shifts in the political landscape.

The fourth issue is the operation of National Assembly standing committees. 

The operation of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee and the Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Future Planning Committee, chaired by lawmakers Choi Min-hee and Choo Mi-ae respectively, has drawn significant criticism from the public. Some analyzed this as a strategy to appeal to the support base with an eye on nominations for next year's local elections. 

However, in Choi Min-hee's case, the "controversy over wedding gift money for her daughter" added to her predicament, and Choo Mi-ae's "controversy over her son's evasion of military service" was also brought up, leading to repeated disruptions in the standing committee. The pinnacle of this was the agitated demeanor of Policy Director Kim Yong-bum, who recently attended a standing committee meeting. Although Senior Political Affairs Secretary Woo Sang-ho tried to calm him, it was in vain. 

The People Power Party criticized the situation, stating, "This is what happens when you wear a sash," and "Committee operations that regress democracy," questioning the overall operation of the National Assembly. 

The political community anticipates that "December 3rd" will serve as the outlet for all these conflicts. The political landscape is virtually moving into the stage of all-out warfare for the local elections, with judgment messages and defense strategies intersecting at a single point, including the one-year anniversary of emergency martial law, the controversy over abandoning the Daejang-dong appeal, and the exchanges concerning Kim Hyun-ji and Kang Hoon-sik over who holds substantive personnel authority.

With just over six months left until the local elections, political conflicts will intensify further, and December 3rd is expected to become not just a date, but a political turning point and the starting point of the battlefront. 

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