The moderate leaders of the main opposition Democratic Party have lost ground to hard-line party members in the course of a backward-looking confrontation with the ruling Saenuri Party in recent months.

The opposition party launched an outdoor campaign Thursday by setting up a makeshift headquarters at a central plaza in Seoul and holding a meeting of DP lawmakers there to pressure the ruling party to cooperate in a deadlocked parliamentary probe into the state spy agency’s alleged interference in last December’s presidential election.

In a press conference a day earlier, DP chairman Kim Han-gil said his party had run out of patience as it became clear that President Park Geun-hye and her Saenuri Party had no desire to uncover the truth and reform the National Intelligence Service.

This hardened stance apparently puts an end to the relatively conciliatory approach taken by Kim and party floor leader Jun Byung-hun in dealing with the ruling party. What they had advocated as efforts at enhancing parliamentary politics seems to have been squeezed between the tough positions taken by hardliners in the rival parties.

The conservative Saenuri Party has criticized the DP for attempting to turn the parliamentary investigation into a stage for launching a political offensive against the outcome of the last presidential election, in which Park defeated opposition contender Moon Jae-in by a narrow margin. The probe, which is to be conducted for 45 days through Aug. 15, is aimed at looking into allegations that former NIS chief Won Sei-hoon ordered an online smear campaign to sway public opinion in favor of the ruling party ahead of the election.

The ruling party has tried to blunt the opposition’s offensive by claiming that late liberal President Roh Moo-hyun undermined South Korea’s sovereignty during his 2007 summit with then North Korean leader Kim Jong-il by offering to surrender the western maritime border close to the North’s coastline. The move embarrassed and angered hard-line DP lawmakers, most of whom were close associates of Roh.

The wrangling has paralyzed party politics, with the liberal opposition party facing harsher criticism that it is making a meaningless attempt at damaging the legitimacy of Park’s election as president, while paying little attention to more pertinent matters, including the relevance of policies pursued by her administration. A recent poll, which showed its approval rating had been halved to 18 percent in the seven months since last December’s election, should lead the DP to take the criticism more seriously. The support rate for the Saenuri Party was reduced to 36 percent from 42 percent over the same period.

The proportion of nonpartisan voters climbed from 18 percent to 43 percent, the highest level in a decade, suggesting the escalating confrontation between the rival parties has made an increasing number of people turn their backs against the political establishment.

In this situation, it may be understandable that Park, whose approval rating recently exceeded 60 percent, has distanced herself from party politics. But it is undesirable for the president to remain politically aloof, as cooperation with political parties will be essential to succeeding in her key policy agenda.

According to analysts, most nonpartisan voters are in their 20s and 30s, and belong to low or lower-middle income groups. To restore party politics that can touch their hearts, the ruling and opposition parties should focus on matters related to people’s livelihoods instead of locking themselves in a frame of ideological conflict.

DP leader Kim said that his party would go with the people in its fight against the ruling bloc. His moderate instincts, however, may already be telling him that not many people will be in step with the party.