The People Power Party held a street rally in central Seoul on the 3rd ahead of next week's parliamentary audit of government agencies, stepping up attacks on President Lee Jae-myung and the ruling bloc. The Democratic Party of Korea responded by calling the PPP "an anti-livelihood party."
About 70 sitting lawmakers joined the rally, including party leader Jang Dong-hyuk and floor leader Chung Jom-sig. The PPP focused its criticism on the abolition of the Prosecution Service, a landmine blast involving North Korean troops and questions surrounding Lee's trials.
In his speech, Jang led chants including "Overhaul housing policy," "Immediately halt the full survey of farmland," "Accept a special counsel probe into ETFs" and "Resume Lee Jae-myung's trials." Chung said the government had "not uttered a single word of criticism of North Korea even after its landmine provocation," asking, "What exactly does Kim Jong-un have on them?" It was the PPP's first street rally in about a year, following a protest held in front of Seoul City Hall on Sept. 28 last year. Party members had initially been reluctant to take to the streets, but the rally went ahead after a consensus emerged that a public opinion campaign was needed ahead of next week's audit.
Jeon Eun-soo, the Democratic Party's floor spokesperson, dismissed the rally as "a show of force by party leader Jang Dong-hyuk." She said, "We cannot help asking whether the main opposition party taking to the streets just before the parliamentary audit is truly for the people." She also described the PPP as "an anti-livelihood party that values power within the party more than the public."
Jeon urged the PPP to "do the work of the National Assembly if livelihoods and the economy are difficult and security is grave," adding that "thoroughly scrutinizing the government through the parliamentary audit and putting forward concrete, substantive measures for people's livelihoods is the duty of the main opposition party."
