Foul play and dirty tricks

Ruling party should offer apology for launching satellite party

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has decided to take part in an initiative to form a liberal satellite political party designed to win more proportional representation seats in the April 15 general election. In a vote of all party members conducted last week, about 241,000 members cast ballots and 74 percent supported the move.

The ruling party opted to join in a coalition of political parties to mitigate public criticism instead of creating its own sister party. But given that the minor opposition Justice Party made clear that it won't take part in the initiative, the coalition is a de facto satellite party of the DPK.

DPK Chairman Lee Hae-chan defended the party's decision, saying it was an inevitable choice to stop the conservative opposition United Future Party (UFP) from becoming the largest party and blocking reform measures pushed by the Moon Jae-in administration. But his statement is certainly a lame excuse that cannot be justified under any circumstances. The ruling party has reneged on its promise to break the country's confrontational two-party system by enabling smaller parties to produce more lawmakers when it collaborated with the minority opposition in passing an electoral reform bill last December.

One can understand the ruling party's concerns. If the DPK sits on its hands, the Future Korea Party, the UFP's satellite party, may take more than two dozen proportional representation seats, which would enable the opposition bloc to hold the National Assembly speaker post. Furthermore, the UFP is threatening to push for the impeachment of President Moon Jae-in if it wins a majority in parliament.

However, the DPK should not have chosen the path of foul play and dirty tricks, recalling that it lambasted the main opposition party when the UFP launched its own satellite party. The DPK should offer a public apology for revising the Election Law without a consensus with the main opposition party and backpedaling on electoral and political reform.