Jo Woo-seok, Current Affairs Commentator

The People Power Party (PPP) is once again in a complete predicament. Yoon Hee-suk's innovation committee has effectively lost its momentum, and recently the party has been suffering from the controversy surrounding Jeon Han-gil's admission. The crucial question is whether the party convention scheduled for next month, after electing a new leader, will serve as an opportunity for us to be reborn as a party that fights well, as we desire. No one can guarantee that. Instead, voices calling for dissolution are growing both inside and outside the party.

Regardless of who becomes the party leader among those who have already declared their candidacy, Kim Moon-soo and Ahn Cheol-soo, as well as Jo Kyung-tae and Jang Dong-hyuk, the situation will not change. Kim Moon-soo? He is considered better among them, but we were greatly disappointed this time. Immediately after the presidential election defeat, he didn't even mention the clear election fraud and immediately conceded victory. Now, out of the blue, he says, "I will fight hard against Lee Jae-myung's dictatorship." What does this mean? Is the warrior Kim Moon-soo we knew dead, replaced by Kim Moon-soo, Lee Jae-myung's helper?

Han Dong-hoon, who made a surprise resignation on July 24th, is even more appalling. How should we interpret his nonsensical statement, "Let's create a reform alliance to prevent the party from regressing to the far-right"? It's truly a spectacle. For example, he's making a fuss, asking if Jeon Han-gil's admission means that the conspiracy theory faction about election fraud is going to take over the party. What's more surprising is that even in this situation, there are almost no people trying to stop him.

Therefore, I intend to speak harsh words today, and I will reiterate that the so-called "expansion of the center" that half-baked individuals like Han Dong-hoon passionately advocate for is utter nonsense. On the contrary, the only way for the PPP to recover is through far-right expansion. No matter how much I think about it, there is no other answer. Why? Because it was not the Democratic Party, but conservative parties that achieved industrialization and democratization in this country. However, such conservative parties completely died after the three-party merger in 1990, which was centered around the Party for Peace and Democracy (PPD). They have vanished.

After Roh Tae-woo brought in Kim Young-sam and Kim Jong-pil at that time, proper conservative parties disappeared. It means that forces eager to march forward under the banner of liberal democracy have almost disappeared. Conversely, the Democratic Party, the red party that mocks and points fingers at conservative parties as far-right or pro-Japanese traitors, and the Democratic Party, the student activist party, are decisively overpowering us. Those Democratic Party members are now aggressively pushing to dissolve the PPP, calling it a party of sedition. This is the cause of this nation's fatal crisis.

Therefore, I declare this: The "expansion of the center" that half-baked individuals like Han Dong-hoon passionately advocate for is nothing more than the헛소리 of a quack doctor who whispers that eating feces will make you healthy. Moreover, they do not see the Democratic Party as a worthy opponent to fight against. Rather, they are a group of fools who have a complex about that party and are constantly worried. In fact, have you ever seen Han Dong-hoon criticize Roh Moo-hyun, Moon Jae-in, Lee Jae-myung, or Kim Dae-jung? No.

Crucially, those individuals have degenerated into a corrupt vested interest group. The party that embodies that tightly-knit group is the current PPP. This is evident in the fact that not only did they fail to protect Presidents Park Geun-hye and Yoon Suk-yeol, but they even took the lead in their downfall. Of course, the term "far-right" should not be misunderstood. There is no "far-right" in South Korea. If anything, there is only the "far-left." The reason for using such a term is merely a figure of speech to emphasize our fighting power against the red party, the Democratic Party.

So, we must ask: Did that far-left force, specifically Lee Jae-myung, win the general election last April through moderate expansion nominations, meaning Han Dong-hoon's style of nominating based on public eye-level, and achieve victory? Conversely, why did the PPP, which nominated based on public eye-level and moderate expansion, suffer the worst defeat?

For the PPP to survive now, the utmost priority is to bid a clean farewell to such rotten "public eye-level" rhetoric and the theory of moderate expansion. Anyone who brings up such talk should be immediately expelled from the party. Only then will the party survive. This is not a vague statement. It is not a matter of whether or not to admit someone like Jeon Han-gil. Truly combative individuals, so-called "far-right" figures, must enter the party in large numbers.

For example, Kim Sang-jin, chairman of the asphalt right-wing from Honam who defended President Yoon Suk-yeol; Kang Shin-up, a passionate lawyer; and Jeong Jae-hak, known as the poet from Jeolla, would be good candidates. Also, Do Tae-woo, a conscientious young lawyer; Park Jun-young, a younger vice-chairman of the Free University; and Ryu Seok-chun, a former Yonsei University professor and former innovation committee chairman, would also be suitable.

There are numerous others, such as Park Joo-hyun, a lawyer known as a killer of election fraud; Han Min-ho, former director of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, who was oppressed by both the Moon Jae-in and Yoon Suk-yeol administrations; and even Byun Hee-jae, who, despite being controversial, is still on our side. The characteristic of these individuals is that they possess fighting power; they are what are called "lunatics" or "die-hards." This is not all. Pastor Jeon Kwang-hoon, a symbolic figure of the Gwanghwamun movement, and leaders like Son Sang-dae and Shin Hae-sik must also flood into the PPP and play significant roles there.

Do not question why someone's name is included and another's is excluded. Personal relationships or lack thereof are not important at all. The criterion for judging whether someone is a suitable candidate is whether they are someone who will fight more bravely against the leftist rampage and defend South Korea. They must be worth a hundred. Paradoxically, they must be like "right-wing brazen individuals."

The standard for selecting people is simple. The more the leftists say, "Oh, that person is really difficult to deal with and won't do," the more we should promote them. Naturally, such people should never apologize for martial law and should never act to distance themselves from Yoon Suk-yeol. When have you ever seen the leftists apologize? If so, we must go beyond that. We must vehemently argue that martial law and Yoon Suk-yeol were measures to save South Korea.

If cornered, we must stubbornly hold our ground with far greater shamelessness than the leftists, even if it means invoking the principle of presumed innocence. Since I've started speaking, I'll say something more caustic. The first thing such people should do after joining the PPP and pooling their strength is to summarily dismiss someone like innovation committee chairman Yoon Hee-suk, who wants to "carve 'severance from Yoon Suk-yeol' into the party constitution and regulations."

In this world, what political party puts an apology statement into its constitution and regulations? As Mr. Kenneth Kim, who served as an aide to a Democratic Party lawmaker, bravely said, instead of apologizing for martial law, we should instead offer a scathing apology for the division that has occurred so far. I'm not talking about mere words. Individuals like Han Dong-hoon, Lee Jun-seok, and Hong Joon-pyo, who have fanned the flames of division, must be immediately struck off the rolls of conservatives.

This is the end of my first article today. Shall I emphasize it again? We must transform the PPP, which is merely a burden, into a party ten times more shameless and combative than the student activist leftist party, the Democratic Party. Only then can we fully uphold the banner of liberal democracy. The problem remains. Who will actually accomplish this? Who will bell the cat? Ultimately, it is a question of "how," and I will discuss that on another occasion. This is how I've introduced myself in my first column for the Hanmi Ilbo.

Jo Woo-seok, Current Affairs Commentator