On June 3, Han Dong-hoon, former leader of the opposition People Power Party (PPP), miraculously won the parliamentary by-election to represent a northern district in Busan. A couple of days later, amid his supporters’ cheers and camera flicks, he lingered before the granite steps leading up to the National Assembly. For a second he looked relieved, but the resolute look that immediately followed indicated what a slog lay ahead for him.
Back in January, the PPP kicked Han out over allegations that the former party leader mobilized his family to slander former President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife online. But in reality, it was more because Jang Dong-hyuk, the new PPP leader and a staunch Yoon supporter, didn’t want to see Han stirring up intra-party dissent over his leadership.
Han led the PPP from December 2023 to April 2024 and then again from July to December 2024. During his leadership, Han locked horns with Yoon and openly defied Yoon’s martial law declaration and failed self-coup in December 2024.
The PPP leadership has come to blame Han for the Yoon administration’s – and the party’s – demise. They believe that Han’s open clashes with Yoon were to blame for the rout in the April 2024 general elections that earned the liberal bloc almost a two-third parliamentary majority. In reality, had it not been for Han’s sensible critique of the Yoon administration, the PPP would have lost more parliamentary seats.
Han critics also believe that Yoon’s impeachment motion was passed in December 2024 largely due to pro-Han legislators joining the liberal camp in voting in favor.
Han is now testing the waters to get back into the PPP. The prevailing mood within the party is one of awed recognition of his election victory. He competed against strong candidates from the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and the PPP. Given how the right-wing votes were split between Han and the PPP, his win was quite an achievement. One PPP legislator said Han was like “a star” with “power of absorption.”
Han began his courting, too, joining forums and sub-groups headed by the PPP grandees. Some PPP big shots not chummy with Han even co-signed Han’s amendment bill. Although they may have had an ulterior motive of embracing Han to siphon pro-Han votes in future elections, this could provide a secure foothold for Han to enter the PPP again.
Not surprisingly, though, Jang is all frowns. “I’m sure that admitting Han into the PPP will be of no help in terms of the party expansion, solidarity and consolidation,” Jang said categorically on July 21.
There have been some voices within the party calling for Jang to resign to take responsibility for the dismal June local elections results. Instead, Jang has come under flak for keeping his ears shut against criticism and staging solo activities outside the parliament.
Of late, he has been frequenting – by himself – Seoul Olympic Park, where hundreds of demonstrators are demanding justice and accountability for how the Election Commission fielded fewer ballots than the number of registered voters. During the June local elections, as a result, dozens of constituents were turned away at some polling stations, having been denied the right to vote.
This is an egregious institutional wrong and failure, and the PPP’s official stance is to file election petitions for investigation and partial re-election in the areas where the voters couldn’t exercise their democratic right. However, Jang is insisting on a complete re-run of the June local elections. This is not only infeasible but also represents Jang’s pandering to the far-right election fraud conspiracy that deems every election to have been rigged.
But Jang is stubborn. “He always says ‘I am right,’ ‘I am isolated’ and ‘I am aggrieved,’” said one PPP legislator, describing Jang’s refusal to listen to others. “Acting alone doesn’t mean leadership. A leader should be moving all 110 PPP legislators together,” said another PPP lawmaker.
Cho Gab-je, perhaps the most respected conservative commentator and former head of the monthly magazine of Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s largest conservative daily, chipped in in favor of Han. “Han is better than all the 110 PPP legislators combined,” he said. “Han’s diction and prose are armed with the constitution, facts and common sense,” Cho added.
Meanwhile, Cho opined that “Jang is acting cute with his far-right supporters” and picking fights with Han to prolong his political life.
On the other hand, Han is keeping cool. “I look forward to rebuilding conservatism and taking back the administration in 2030, not the past,” Han said. He isn’t alone. While Jang insists on further consolidating the PPP’s registered members, Jeong Jeom-sig, the PPP floor leader, said on July 20 that “we can’t just operate with just our members and their wishes,” pointing out that the party should really be “people’s party.”
In that sense, he’s more open to the idea – and the necessity, really – of letting Han back into the PPP fold. Jeong said hs is hoping for a “consensus” from “many people” – including, but apparently not limited to, the PPP members and legislators.
Oh Se-hoon, Seoul’s new mayor and one of the few PPP candidates to emerge victorious in the local elections, went even further. He had already scuffled with Jang over the direction, or the lack thereof, of intra-party reform ahead of the June local elections. Now, Oh is calling for abolishing the PPP chairship. “Do we really need a party chairperson?” he asked in one forum in late June as a calculated jab at Jang. Recently, he has been dining with influential PPP legislators, including the floor leader Jeong, to discuss how to reform the party.
Jang’s leadership, however, seems safe for now. According to a major pollster, the PPP’s approval ratings bounded up into the 40 percent range in mid-July. PPP supporters seem to have momentarily coalesced to give their party a chance to stitch up their differences and fight the DP on major fronts, including what to do with the Election Commission and the prosecutorial reform. Many PPP lawmakers are now going to Olympic Park to support Jang and his supporters.
Also, there doesn’t seem to be a viable alternative to Jang in shepherding the PPP. Even if his critics successfully pressure Jang to step down and hold a national convention, he is most likely to win again. Votes from registered party members provide 70 percent of the chair vote tally, while performance in national polls is only worth 30 percent. Han may be more popular with the general public, but it’s Jang that holds a powerful grip on the PPP voters.
Meanwhile, unlike throughout June and early July, anti-Han feelings are rearing up again. Han’s hero narrative is that he, as the PPP leader at the time of Yoon’s unconstitutional martial law, urged the PPP legislators to hightail it to the National Assembly and revoke Yoon’s martial law. The PPP lawmakers find this storytelling – where they were being wishy-washy, only to be jolted to sense and action by Han – not only irritating but also hurtful to the party’s unity. The issue boiled over again recently.
Former PPP floor leader Choo Kyung-ho is currently on trial for allegedly aiding Yoon’s failed self-coup. On the night of Yoon’s declaration of martial law, on the PPP chat Choo messaged his fellow legislators to report to the party headquarters, rather than the National Assembly where they could vote against Yoon’s martial law. On July 9, Ahn Chul-soo, quite a popular PPP lawmaker, testified in favor of Choo that “I heard that Han ordered others to meet up at the party headquarters, and then Choo just followed along.”
In citing the PPP group chat and live media reports at the time, Han retorted that “just because some time has passed doesn’t mean that you can distort facts.”
Ahn was livid. In a press conference, Ahn reminded Han that “he wasn’t the only one that night that blocked martial law.” Ahn chastised Han that it was unconscionable to attack fellow PPP personnel “just to protect his own epic.” Ahn is a four-time PPP legislator, with significant party clout and fans. Their spat engendered a fresh concern that Han’s rejoining the PPP will only foment discord. Ahn made it clear that “I’m categorically opposed to Han’s return to the PPP.”
Whether or not Han makes it back to the PPP, it seems most likely that Han and Jang would be incompatible. In early July, Jang’s young granddaughter passed away. Han dropped by the funeral, unannounced. Jang’s representatives expressed severe displeasure. Their political feud is now personal.
But in Jang’s mind, the issue of Han is already a life-or-death matter. Regarding severing ties with Yoon and compromising with Han, he said that “doing these things means abandoning my identity and dying.”
