President Lee: “Irresponsible extremism” vs. Rhyu Si-min: “Dismantling the camp like Yoon ... may not serve out the term”

[Financial News] Divisions within the broader ruling bloc over the “clarity of reform” are intensifying. After President Lee Jae Myung opened fire on hardliners pressing for prosecution and judicial reform, calling them “irresponsible extremists,” writer Rhyu Si-min, a leading commentator in the progressive camp, clashed head-on, saying, “President Lee is dismantling the camp just as former President Yoon Suk Yeol did,” and warning that the term could even be cut short.

On the 28th, President Lee posted on X (formerly Twitter), strongly criticizing hardliners within the ruling bloc. He said, “There are people who tout their own clarity of purpose or make excessively inflammatory claims to serve their hidden political and personal agendas, thereby effectively obstructing prosecution reform.” He added, “It is irresponsible extremism to agitate in an ‘all or nothing’ fashion as if only you were the principled agents of reform, attack comrades genuinely trying to reform, and lead the way to the failure of substantive reform.”
This was aimed at recent disagreements within the broader ruling bloc over the intensity and pace of reform. Although the Democratic Party of Korea settled on pursuing a parliamentary investigation rather than impeaching Supreme Court Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae, hardliners in the ruling bloc and the Rebuilding Korea Party (RKP) are at odds with the government, demanding immediate passage of an impeachment motion before the president’s policy address to the National Assembly. President Lee shared the post in response to an online user’s criticism that he should apologize for branding critics as forces obstructing state affairs, and stood by his rebuttal.

By contrast, writer Rhyu Si-min appeared that day on the YouTube broadcast “Park Si-young TV,” which had 150,000 simultaneous viewers, and unleashed a barrage of criticism against President Lee and the pro-Lee leadership.
Rhyu said, “Yoon Suk Yeol the beetle dismantled his own camp completely, and the current government and President Lee Jae Myung are doing exactly the same,” citing “the dismantling of the camp” as the biggest reason for the decline in the government’s approval rating. Referring to approval in the 30-percent range, he said, “What this indicator tells us is that the president does not have the public’s confidence.” He warned, “If a powerful countercurrent in public sentiment sweeps in, the ship could capsize. In an extreme case, the president might not serve out the term, as happened with Park Geun-hye and Yoon Suk Yeol.”
He also analyzed the recent rise in support for the RKP as reflecting dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party’s course and a sense that it was likely to founder, prompting people to consider switching “from the icebreaker to a lifeboat for the democratic and progressive forces.”

Rhyu also took aim at the Democratic Party of Korea leadership, which he said should take responsibility for restoring unity within the camp. Targeting party leader Kim Min-seok in particular, he claimed, “He created ‘Minty07’ (the Democratic Party’s official YouTube channel), and the party leader keeps leading the charge in wrecking the camp.” He added, “He put the channel in the hands of Rep. Kim Nam-jun of the Seongnam faction and mainly broadcasts with panelists who go around taking shots at every political leader or commentator except President Lee.” The criticism is that the leadership failed to resolve factional tensions that surfaced during the party convention and instead accelerated divisions among its supporters.
Meanwhile, Rhyu dismissed allegations raised by some of the president’s staunch supporters that he had become wealthy through stock-price manipulation involving SillaJen, saying, “My assets aren’t even half of 10 billion won (5 billion won).” Park Si-young, the operator of the YouTube channel Rhyu appeared on, previously clashed with the party leadership after party leader Kim Min-seok instructed him to investigate a controversy over the receipt of 2.1 billion won in campaign consulting fees for Choo Mi-ae’s Gyeonggi governor election campaign.
[email protected] Park Ji-hyun Reporter