Joo Ho-young, the People Power Party's longest-serving lawmaker (six terms) and deputy speaker of the National Assembly, said he urged party leader Jang Dong-hyeok to sever ties with the so-called "Yoon Again" faction. When Jang refused, Joo said he was disappointed and stopped trying to persuade him.
In a March 9 interview on YTN Radio, Joo was asked whether, as a party elder, he had met with the leadership to offer guidance on the party's direction. He replied that advice only matters when the recipient is prepared to accept it; offering counsel to someone who isn't ready, he said, only leads to conflict.
"I told Leader Jang he needed to break with 'Yoon Again,' but he didn't," Joo said. "I tried to persuade him, then gave up."
Joo criticized Jang for not cutting ties with former president Yoon Suk Yeol and his supporters. "It seems he believes he has no chance of winning if he abandons the so-called Yoon Again or our active supporters," Joo said. "But most people think courting hardcore supporters—the so-called far right or Yoon Again—would alienate centrists and produce a much larger net loss of voters. That appears to be the core disagreement."
Rep. Cho Eun-hee, a two-term former Seocho District mayor, made a related point in an MBC Radio interview the same day, saying, "In my view, the party leadership seems to have a bit of a 'Han Dong-hoon phobia.'"
Cho added that there had been a misconception that former leader Han Dong-hoon—who left the party and has been touring Daegu and Busan in ways that do not help local campaigns—was tied to the "Alternative and Future" group. After discussions with party elders, she said, the leadership appears to have recognized that this is not the case.
