Jang Dong-hyuk, leader of the People Power Party, criticized his party’s internal response to the impeachment process involving former President Yoon Seok-yeol after the Dec. 3 martial law incident, saying, “Impeachment is not the only way to resolve martial law.”
On the 8th, at a briefing hosted by the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club, reporters asked whether his vote to lift martial law conflicted with his later stance during the impeachment proceedings.
He responded, “I voted in favor of lifting martial law,” and said it is wrong to assume his legal position on martial law changed during the impeachment or subsequent phases.
He added that impeachment is not the only way to address the issue and said party members had discussed a gradual resignation after the martial law episode. Internal divisions within the People Power Party, he argued, ultimately opened the door to impeachment.
He also said he may personally assign a different political meaning to the martial law episode, arguing that the social consequences and aftermath—not just legal questions—could justify another perspective.
Speaking about his March remark at a conservative rally that “God has a plan in martial law,” he defended it as a personal Christian belief and added that even Judas Iscariot’s betrayal played a role in what he described as God’s plan for salvation.
When asked about the party’s falling approval ratings, he said the decline reflects the reality of an early administration, when the ruling party and the president typically enjoy higher approval ratings.
Finally, he warned that if the ruling party relies solely on its approval ratings to endorse candidates with criminal allegations or pushes for a special prosecutor to drop indictments and erase President Lee Jae-myung’s alleged crimes, it will alienate centrist voters and produce a major backlash ahead of the local elections.
