During the past 17 years, two presidents from the main conservative party – which has rebranded several times – were impeached before completing their original term, while one president was sentenced to prison after leaving office.
As a result, the People Power Party (PPP), the current incarnation of the conservative party, has clearly demonstrated that it has no capability either to field the right candidate for president or to work with the president as the ruling party to ensure a functional government. Recently, Yoon Suk-yeol’s bold attempt to control the country through martial law explicitly showed that the PPP has no power to check the wrongdoings of the president.
Despite the Constitutional Court’s unanimous decision to remove Yoon from office over his marital law declaration, the PPP has not changed at all. On the contrary, the party insisted on defending Yoon rather than criticizing him. Even today, the key leadership of the PPP, including its floor leader and and other senior positions, consists of pro-Yoon lawmakers.
In the June 3 snap presidential election, Kim Moon-soo, a far-right extremist who had been Yoon’s labor minister, received 41.15 percent of votes from the public. Despite the democratic and constitutional crises engendered by Yoon and the PPP, there was only a margin of 8.3 percentage points between the winner of the election, current South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, and Kim.
PPP supporters have clearly shown their unwavering support to the party, no matter its performance while in government. And that unmoving base has encouraged pro-Yoon lawmakers to announce their candidacy for the party leadership.
On Sunday, Kim, the PPP’s former presidential candidate, announced his campaign for the party chair. As a figure who had actively defended Yoon’s martial law, Kim said his candidacy was necessary to confront the Lee administration. Kim accused Lee of being a dictator and framed the Lee administration and the ruling Democratic Party as “anti-U.S.” forces, all without any reasonable evidence.
Following Kim’s announcement, Jang Dong-hyuk and Joo Jin-woo have also announced their bids for the party leadership election. Like Kim, Jang, another PPP lawmaker, has consistently defended Yoon and his declaration of martial law, blaming the DP and even the South Korean public for forcing Yoon’s hand.
Joo was a member of the inner circle of Han Dong-hoon, the former leader of the PPP who was previously a right-hand man working as a justice minister for Yoon. Joo and Han were among the few PPP members to engage with the National Assembly’s successful push to impeach Yoon in December 2024. However, Joo also worked in Yoon’s presidential office before he ran for the general election in 2024 so the public in general does not view him as an anti-Yoon politician. Like Yoon, Joo was also a full-time career prosecutor before he started working in Yoon’s presidential office.
Anti-Yoon senior lawmakers Cho Kyung-tae and Ahn Cheol-soo have also declared their candidacies, but the party is controlled by pro-Yoon lawmakers with the unconditional support of PPP supporters, who still believe that Yoon was unjustly impeached by “anti-state forces.” Anti-Yoon figures represent a minority group in the PPP and are unlikely to win the chair race. Han, the former leader of the party who lent his support to the impeachment of Yoon, has already declared he will not run in the party leadership election.
According to local media reports, the PPP’s approval rating has fallen to 17 percent. As every voice questioning the party’s decision to defend Yoon and oppose his impeachment has been disregarded and sidelined, the PPP’s approval ratings will likely fall even more going forward.