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Is South Korea’s Liberal Opposition Party About to Split?
['Steven Denney']
The Diplomat
In Canada, the left is split between the Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party.
The party woes facing New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), the latest manifestation of a liberal-progressive party in South Korea, are nothing new.
Factional strife between the left’s “three Kims” (Kim Jong-pil, Kim Dae-jung, and Kim Young-sam) further complicated things for liberal party politics in the early 1990s.
The intense intra-party strife during Roh Moo-hyun’s presidency (2003-2008), which resulted in a liberal party split during his tenure, eventually led to an (unsuccessful) impeachment of Roh by former supporters.
On Wednesday, the former governor of South Jeolla province, Park Jun-young, and an assemblyman, Park Ju-seon (a liberal party defector), appeared on Gwangju local television to debate the notion of starting a new (Honam) party.
['party'
'electoral'
'systems'
'south'
'honam'
'plurality'
'liberalprogressive'
'split'
'liberal'
'opposition'
'parties'
'candidates'
'koreas']