Liberty Korea Party

Liberty Korea Party 자유한국당
Leader	Hong Jun-pyo
Floor leader	Jung Woo-taek
Founded	November 21, 1997 (Grand National Party) February 2, 2012 (Saenuri Party) February 13, 2017 (Liberty Korea Party)
Merger of	United Liberal Democrats Future Hope Alliance Advancement Unification Party
Preceded by	New Korea Party Democratic Party (1995)
Headquarters	18, Gukhoe-daero 70-gil Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul 149-871
Membership (2015)	3,020,776 (As Saenuri Party)[1]
Ideology	Conservatism[2][3][4]
Political position	Centre-right[5][6][7][8][9] to Right-wing[10][11] (As Saenuri Party)
Regional affiliation	Asia Pacific Democrat Union
International affiliation	International Democrat Union
Colours	Red
Seats in the National Assembly	107 / 300
Municipal mayor and Gubernatorial	6 / 17
Seats within local government	1,944 / 3,913
Website
www.libertykoreaparty.kr
Politics of South Korea Political parties Elections

The Liberty Korea Party (Hangul: 자유한국당; Hanja: 自由韓國黨; lit. Korean Free Party) is a conservative^[2][3][4] political party in South Korea. Until February 2017, it was known as the Saenuri Party (Hangul: 새누리당; lit. New Frontier Party), which was previously known as the Hannara Party (Hangul: 한나라당; lit. Grand National Party), both of which are still colloquially used to refer to the party. The party formerly held a plurality of seats in the 20th Assembly before its ruling status was transferred to the Democratic Party of Korea on 27 December 2016 following the creation of the splinter Bareun Party by former Saenuri members who distanced themselves from President Park Geun-hye in the 2016 Korean presidential scandal.

History

The party was founded in 1997 as a merger of United Democratic Party and New Korea Party. Its earliest ancestor was the Democratic Republican Party^[12] under the authoritarian rule of Park Chung-hee in 1963. Upon Park's death and at the beginning of the rule of Chun Doo-hwan in 1980, it was reconstituted and renamed as the Democratic Justice Party. In 1988, party member Roh Tae-woo introduced a wide range of political reforms including direct Presidential elections and a new constitution. The party was renamed in 1993, during the presidency of Kim Young-sam,^[13] with the merger of other parties to form the Democratic Liberal Party (Minju Jayudang). It was renamed as the New Korea Party (Sinhangukdang) in 1995, and it then became the Grand National Party in November 1997 following its merger with the smaller United Democratic Party (1996) and various conservative parties.^[14]

Three months later, with the election of Kim Dae-jung of the Centrist Reformists Democratic Party as president, the party's governing role came to an end, beginning its first ever period in opposition, which would last ten years. In October 2012, the Advancement Unification Party merged with the Saenuri Party.^[15]

Following the 2000 parliamentary elections, it was the single largest political party, with 54% of the vote and 147 seats out of 271.

The party was defeated in the parliamentary election in 2004 following the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun, gaining only 121 seats out of 299. The defeat reflected public disapproval of the impeachment which was instigated by the party. This was the first time in its history that the party had not won the most seats. It gained back five seats in by-elections, bringing it to 127 seats as of October 28, 2005.^[16]

2007 onwards

On December 19, 2007, the GNP's candidate, former Seoul mayor Lee Myung-bak won the presidential election,^[17] ending the party's ten years period in opposition.

In the April 2008 general election, the GNP secured a majority of 153 seats out of 299 and gained power in the administration and the parliament as well as most local governments, despite the low turnout of votes.^[18]

One of the main bases of popular support of the party originates from the conservative, traditionalist elite and the rural population, except for farmers. It is strongest in the Gyeongsang region. Former party head and 2007 presidential candidate Park Geun-hye is the daughter of former President Park Chung-hee who ruled from 1961 to 1979. Although Representative Won Hee-ryeong and Hong Jun-pyo ran for the party primary as reformist candidates, former Seoul mayor and official presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak gained more support (about 40%) from the Korean public.

The GNP suffered a setback in the 2010 local elections, losing a total of 775 local seats throughout the counties,^[19] but remained as the most seats in the region.

2011

GNP-affiliated politician, Oh Se-hoon, lost his mayoral position of Seoul after the Seoul Free Lunch Referendum.

The Grand National Party has celebrated its 14th anniversary on November 21, 2011 amid uncertainties from intra-party crises.^[20]

The DDoS attacks during the October 2011 by-election have become a central concern of the GNP as it could potentially disintegrate the party leadership.^[21]

Emergency Response Commission

The Hong Jun-pyo leadership system collapsed on December 9, 2011 and GNP Emergency Response Commission was launched on December 17, 2011, with Park Geun-hye as commission chairperson, to prepare coming up Legislative Election 2012 on April 11, 2012 and Presidential Election 2012 on December 19, 2012.^[22]

There was a debate with Commission members about whether to transform the Grand National Party into a non-conservative political party or not, but Park said the GNP would never become non-conservative and will follow the real value of conservatism.^[23][24]

Official color

In February 2012, the party changed its political official colour from blue to red. In the past 30 years blue was the symbol of the conservative parties.^[25]

Policy

The party supports free trade and neoliberal economic policies. The party favors maintaining strong cooperates with the United States and Japan while distancing South Korea from North Korea. The party is also conservative on social issues such as opposition to legal recognition of same-sex couples.

Four major rivers project

One of the party's important policies is to financially secure The Four Major Rivers Project since President Lee Myung-bak was in office. This project's budget disputes have sparked controversial political motions in the National Assembly for three consecutive years.^[26]

Sejong City project

The party has been less inclined toward the creation of a new capital city for South Korea, to be called Sejong City than the previous administration. As of 2012, the Saenuri Party has indicated that some governmental offices will be relocated to the new city, but not all.

Human rights activism

The party has been very active in promoting the North Korean Human Rights Law, which would officially condemn the use of torture, public executions and other human rights violations in North Korea.^[27]

Party representative Ha Tae Kyung is the founder of Open Radio for North Korea, an NGO dedicated to spreading news and information about democracy, to which citizens of North Korea have little access due to the government's isolationist policies.^[28] In April 2012, Saenuri member Cho Myung-Chul became the first North Korean defector elected to the National Assembly.^[29] In spring 2012, several Saenuri representatives took part in the "Save my friend" protests, organized to oppose China's policy of repatriating North Korean defectors, and expressed their solidarity with Park Sun-young's hunger strike.^[30]

Criticism

Online sockpuppetry

• The party has records of secretly hiring and paying university students to generate online replies favorable to the GNP.^[31]
• GNP member Jin Seong-ho (진성호) formally apologized on July 2, 2009 for making a remark that "the GNP occupied Naver".^[32] Naver is one of the biggest South Korean internet portals.

December 8, 2010 controversial bill-passing

• The party passed a bill relating to the year 2011 national budget without the opposition parties' input on December 8, 2010.^[33] It had caused legislative violence before. This process of passing the budget bill sparked controversy of potential illegality. Due to this incident, many South Korean political, academic and citizen groups expressed their outrage against current mainstream politics.^[34] The reason for forceful passing of the bill is mainly due to the budget disputes in the controversial Four Major Rivers Project.^[35]
• Many Buddhists in South Korea criticized the budget bill on December 8, 2010 for neglecting the national Temple Stay program.^[36] This has led the Jogye Order, the largest Buddhist order in South Korea, to sever ties with the GNP^[37] and becoming financially independent without any funding from the government.^[38]
• The interns and the staff working in the National Assembly officially complained on December 17 that their salary was missing after the passing of this bill.^[39]

Infiltration of opposition party

A Blue House official of the pro-GNP Lee Myung-bak government illegally infiltrated a party meeting of the opposition Democratic Party, on October 18, 2011.^[40]

List of leaders

Chairpersons

• Note

• ^ERC - as head of Emergency Response Committee
• * - as the de facto head of party

Assembly leaders (Floor leaders)

Election results

Presidential elections

Election	Candidate	Total votes	Share of votes	Outcome
1997	Lee Hoi-chang	9,935,718	38.7%	Lost N
2002	Lee Hoi-chang	11,443,297	46.5%	Lost N
2007	Lee Myung-bak	11,492,389	48.7%	Elected Y
2012	Park Geun-hye	15,773,128	51.6%	Elected Y
2017	Hong Jun-pyo	7,841,017	24%	Lost N

Legislative elections

Election	Total seats won	Total votes	Share of votes	Outcome of election	Election leader
2000	133 / 273	7,365,359	39.0%	13 seats; Minority Opposition	Lee Hoi-chang
2004	121 / 299	7,613,660	35.8%	24 seats; Minority Opposition	Park Geun-hye
2008	153 / 299	6,421,727	37.4%	32 seats; Majority Government	Kang Jae-seop
2012	152 / 300	9,130,651	42.8%	1 seats; Majority Government	Park Geun-hye
2016	122 / 300	7,960,272	33.5%	24 seats; Minority Government	Kim Moo-sung

Local elections

Footnotes

See also

• Impeachment of Park Geun-hye
• South Korean legislative election, 2016
• South Korean presidential election, 2017

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Liberty Korea Party.

• Official website