Ruling party convention escalates out of control

Instead of reflecting on Monday's scuffle among candidates' supporters at the joint speech for the People Power Party's July 23 National Convention, the party's leader candidates engaged in a blame game. This has led to strong criticism within the party, with concerns that the leadership candidates who incite hatred are perpetuating a hostile battle, resulting in the decline of conservatives and the division of the party.”

Appearing at Channel A's YouTube channel 'Political Signal' on Tuesday, candidate Han Dong-hoon commented regarding the previous day's scuffle, stating, "Candidate Won Hee-ryong's supporters interrupted my speech. I was unaware of it during the speech but later realized it was planned and caused an uproar." He added, “They keep calling it ‘mutual conflict’ or ‘mutual slander,’ but have I said anything negative so far?” Han's camp stated that it was very serious if supporters entered with tickets provided by another candidate's camp to attack the other side.

“It seems slogans were shouted against one candidate, but I don’t know if they are our supporters or another candidate’s supporters,” candidate Won Hee-ryong said. He expressed concern that fan club behavior introduces elements previously absent from the party, explicitly targeting Han’s fan club ‘With Huni.’ Won claimed that there was a video of a YouTuber supporting Han assaulting people who appeared to support me.

Candidate Na Kyung-won criticized both Han and Won. Na targeted Han by saying, “The candidacy itself is the original sin of great division and collapse,” while targeting Won by saying, “It’s an absurd Matador, fueled by outdated negativity.”

Candidate Yoon Sang-hyun also criticized, “Who is the person who transformed the national convention into a division convention, creating chaos with people pointing fingers at each other and inciting division and violence?”

“Do you want to be the captain of a shipwreck?” Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon remarked. “No matter who becomes the leader, the significance will inevitably be diminished amid extreme confrontation that even leads to violence.”


이상헌 기자 dapaper@donga.com