The People’s Power Party (PPP) of South Korea could be in its final weeks, as the party has failed to recover from Former President’s Yoon declaration of martial law. The PPP is facing two major scandals, one dealing with the unification church and the other regarding Yoon’s martial law declaration. Representative Kweon Seong-dong of the PPP was arrested on violations of the Political Fund law. It is alleged that the representative received more than $65,000 in bribes from the Unification church. Kweon had previously served as the acting leader of the PPP twice following the chaos of the martial law declaration in December of 2024. The Democratic Party’s (DP) leader, Jung Chun-rae, has even called for the dissolution of the PPP should one of their members be convicted in one of the pending investigations of obstruction of the vote to lift Yoon’s martial law. Meanwhile President Lee Jae-myung and the DP are holding on to their popularity. Lee has seen a spike in approval ratings in the month of November following a successful meeting with US President Donald Trump and the conclusion of the APEC summit. The most recent Gallup polls show Lee with a 60% approval rating. This remains one of the highest approval ratings at this respective point in the term. The DP has continued to have positive news cycles, where even if the DP may be up against more negative news, the members continue to have the right responses.
A New Start Would be Nothing New For South Korea’s Conservatives
Dissolution may be the only path forward for the conservative movement in South Korea. This type of restructuring is not uncommon to the conservatives, as the PPP was founded as recently as 2020. The People Power Party came about as the successor to the Liberty Korea Party, which dissolved as of February 17th, 2020. The Liberty Party had faced its own set of scandals with former President Park Geun-hye. The right wing of Korean politics is even further divided still. The People Future Party had broken away from the PPP and ran as a satellite party in the 2024 election, similar to how the United Future Party had split the conservative vote in the 2020 parliamentary elections. The political right in South Korea has been struggling for the last decade. No party has been able to put up a united vision for the future of South Korea. At a time where everyday Koreans are facing rising costs of living, and an increasingly competitive job market. The people of South Korea continue to reject a party that is stuck in the past. The party is split in their decision to defend former president Yoon. A fresh start with a clear focus on the future of Korea may just be what the political right needs to win in South Korean politics again.