The ruling Saenuri Party’s Secretary-General Rep. Kweon Seong-dong offered on Thursday to resign, succumbing to pressure from the leadership during a factional feud over the party’s latest decision to readmit controversial defectors.

Kweon, who is considered part of the faction that rivals those loyal to President Park Geun-hye, had initially refused to step down despite mounting pressure led by the party’s emergency chief Kim Hee-ok.

Kim and the pro-Park faction had called on Kweon to resign to take responsibility over last week’s decision to bring back all seven defectors through a vote. The pro-Parks had claimed the vote was premature and not conducted with sufficient consensus among the other party members.

The decision to reaccept the defectors, however, remained intact and the party’s seats in the National Assembly have since grown to 129.

“I have expressed my intention to keep my position as I have been (wrongfully) demanded to take responsibility over the matter. But as the chairman (Kim Hee-ok) expressed regret and promised to lead the party well, I will be accepting his request for me to step down,” Kweon said during a morning party meeting. Kweon was named to the post on June 2.

Kweon also took time to lament the latest flare-up, saying, “While the emergency committee decided to accept the independents in its pursuit of reform -- and the decision was praised by many -- the controversy over the calls for my resignation has tarnished such efforts.”

In response, Kim expressed regret and said that he had brought up the need to replace the secretary-general over differing views on how to conduct party affairs, marking a subtle change of his earlier position of holding Kweon directly responsible for the vote.

“I will take necessary follow-up measures to correct the party’s discipline and achieve integration, and plan to name the next secretary-general who is neutral, capable and competent.”

Kim had boycotted party affairs upon the committee’s June 16 unsigned vote, in which the majority agreed to bring back the defectors.

He returned to the party three days later after party floor leader Rep. Chung Jin-suk visited him near his residence and offered an apology. Kim, a former justice, had taken issue with the party’s “lack of discipline” saying that his authority had been undermined when the committee pushed ahead with the vote despite his opposition.

Kweon later told the press that he decided to resign as he deemed his honor has been somewhat restored, with Kim showing regret over the matter, and because he thought further pursuing the matter would not help the party and would aggravate public fatigue over politics.

He also accused some of the pro-Park members of framing him as the force behind the decision to bring back the defectors, saying that such action ran counter to the party’s recent declaration to be rid of factional politics.

The Saenuri Party has been reeling from the April 13 election defeat that stripped it of its majority and No. 1 parliamentary bloc status.

While most of the defectors -- who won in their constituencies as independents after having been dropped from the Saenuri’s nomination -- have repeatedly expressed their desire to return to the party, the staunch pro-Park members had objected, citing conflicting political dispositions and values.

Among the returning defectors, the key person that the pro-Parks had rejected was former floor leader Rep. Yoo Seong-min, who had been singled out by President Park Geun-hye as a traitor upon their disagreement over a parliamentary revision bill last year.

“The way (some of the politicians) are moving around in groups just because of their personal association rather than based on their political conviction or philosophy neither helps the party nor is received well by the public,” Kweon said.

The third-term lawmaker also said that his plan to publish a white paper that goes over the responsibilities and reasons for the election defeat should continue regardless of his resignation.

“An attempt to suspend it will be the same as digging our party’s own grave,” he said. 

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)