Anchor: People Power Party Chairman Jang Dong-hyeok has apologized for the 2024 martial law incident under former President Yoon Suk Yeol, saying he bears a heavy sense of responsibility for the party’s failure to fulfill its role. At a press conference at the party headquarters in Seoul on Wednesday, Jang said his party will reflect on its shortcomings and pursue a new direction that may include a name change. 
Kim Bum-soo has more. 

Report: The main opposition chief faced the cameras and apologized for ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law attempt.

[Sound bite: People Power Party Chairman Jang Dong-hyeok (Korean-English)]
“The declaration of martial law on December 3, 2024, was an inappropriate and misguided measure that did not fit the circumstances at the time. It caused great confusion and inconvenience to our citizens. It also deeply hurt our party members who have upheld the constitutional order of liberal democracy. As the [then-]ruling party, a key pillar of state governance, we bear significant responsibility for failing to fulfill our role. We deeply regret this and sincerely apologize to the people.”

Wednesday’s apology came more than a year after Yoon’s emergency address to the nation on December 3, 2024, and some four months after Jang became the party chief. 

The main opposition has consistently maintained that Yoon’s martial law move was wrong, but the party chief had previously said the purpose of that disastrous decision was to cope with what he called “outrageous acts” by the then-main opposition Democratic Party, which used its parliamentary majority to repeatedly impeach ranking government officials and cut government budgets.  

Jang had been under pressure amid growing calls in and outside of the conservative People Power Party that its leadership must stop defending the ousted president and must sever its remaining ties with him.  

Standing in front of a banner that bore the message “Winning Changes,” the main opposition chief said he will reform the struggling party.

[Sound bite: People Power Party Chairman Jang Dong-hyeok (Korean-English)]
“I will pursue bold political reforms. I will redefine the party’s values and direction, and I will pursue a name change for the party after consulting with all party members. I will eradicate corruption and realize clean politics. Starting with this local election, I will establish a reporting center for nomination irregularities to eradicate corruption and irregularities in the nomination process.”

Despite emerging scandals that have ensnared the ruling Democratic Party and led to the resignations of its floor leader and a Cabinet minister, the main opposition People Power Party has so far failed to regain the support it lost in the aftermath of Yoon’s martial law fiasco.

In a Realmeter survey of one-thousand people between Wednesday and Friday last week, the approval rating for the ruling party stood at 45-point-seven percent, while the main opposition trailed behind with 35-point-five percent.

The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus three-point-one percentage points, with a confidence interval of 95 percent.

Now, with only about five months to go before the gubernatorial elections, it is still uncertain if the conservative People Power Party will be able to overcome the ten percentage point gap under Jang’s dwindling leadership. 

Though Jang says he is willing to join forces with anyone to fight what he called the “tyranny of the Lee Jae Myung administration,” his promises to reinvent the party drew a barbed response from the ruling Democratic Party: 

“Changing your clothes won’t necessarily cleanse your heart.”
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.