Ruling Saenuri Party chairman Rep. Kim Moo-sung once again talked his way into trouble last week, with his latest comment that South Korea’s low fertility should be tackled by bringing in more Chinese immigrants of Korean descent.

It was not the first time an off-the-cuff remark by Kim to put him at the center of political controversy, as he faces the daunting task of overcoming an escalating factional standoff over the party’s nomination rules for the April elections.

“Korea, which has an ethnic Korean (population in) China, needs to accept their massive immigration. This is the best solution to reduce the chances of culture shock (while tackling the low birthrate),” said Kim, during a party meeting to discuss measures to fight the low fertility rate.

His comment drew an intense backlash from the general public and opposition lawmakers. The Minjoo Party of Korea’s female lawmakers said in a statement Sunday that the remark was a “national disgrace” and derogatory toward women and ethnic minorities. 

They derided the remark as an ill-considered plan that treats ethnic minoritiy women as responsible for giving birth to Koreans, while failing to address the fundamental cause of the problem of young couple’s reluctance to have children. 

Last year, Kim drew public outcry for comparing a visiting African student’s skin color to that of coal briquettes. Kim said that the comment was not intended to hurt the student's feelings.

More recently, Kim has been caught up in a political firestorm over his comment about the party’s power structure. He noted that the party’s important decisions -- such as how to nominate candidates for the elections and whether to endorse a contentious bill -- have been made by “the one with power.”

“In previous years, the party members changed their positions toward the Assembly law after the ‘powerful one’ made the decision. That is why I am pushing for a bottom-up nomination process to prevent th e lawmakers (from simply following the leaders’ will),” said Kim on Tuesday.

Though he did not specify who “the one with power” was, his dissenters suspected that it was a tacit reference to President Park Geun-hye.

His remark immediately followed strong criticism mostly from those loyal to President Park, such as Rep. Suh Chung-won, who had competed against Kim for the party’s leadership in 2014. 

" I think Kim himself is the one with power and there are many people close to Kim who get their way in the party’s affairs,” Suh said.

Despite his repeated verbal blunders, Kim has remained strong in the public polls. Realmeter's Jan. 25 polls showed placed Kim as the second favorite presidential hopeful at 18.1 percent, following the Minjoo Party's former chairman Rep. Moon Jae-in at 20.8 percent. 

“Kim often speaks in a nonchalant manner and it is Kim’s political style. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The ‘powerful one’ remark seems to be calculated one and the comment about the immigration policy looks as if off-the-cuff,” said Youn Tae-gon, a senior political analyst at Moa Agenda Strategy.

“Since the political landscape is strongly divided across the party lines, most Korean politicians’ controversial remarks (such as racial slurs) have little impact among their staunch supporters. In that regard, Kim’ approval rating is not his own, but that of the Saenuri Party,” he said.

By Yeo Jun-suk (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)