On June 3, Han Dong-hoon, former leader of the opposition People Power Party (PPP), miraculously won the parliamentary by-election to represent a northern district in Busan. A couple of days later, amid his supporters’ cheers and camera flicks, he lingered before the granite steps leading up to the National Assembly. For a second he looked relieved, but the resolute look that immediately followed indicated what a slog lay ahead for him.
Back in January, the PPP kicked Han out over allegations that the former party leader mobilized his family to slander former President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife online. But in reality, it was more because Jang Dong-hyuk, the new PPP leader and a staunch Yoon supporter, didn’t want to see Han stirring up intra-party dissent over his leadership.
Han led the PPP from December 2023 to April 2024 and then again from July to December 2024. During his leadership, Han locked horns with Yoon and openly defied Yoon’s martial law declaration and failed self-coup in December 2024.
The PPP leadership has come to blame Han for the Yoon administration’s – and the party’s – demise. They believe that Han’s open clashes with Yoon were to blame for the rout in the April 2024 general elections that earned the liberal bloc almost a two-third parliamentary majority. In reality, had it not been for Han’s sensible critique of the Yoon administration, the PPP would have lost more parliamentary seats.
