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The innovation committee of the People Power Party called an official and early end to its activities on Thursday, bringing its efforts to revamp the party in preparation for April’s general election to a close. The committee had been launched in late October in the wake of the ruling party’s crushing defeat in a mayoral by-election in Seoul’s Gangseo District, seen as a bellwether for the 2024 election.

There is a great deal of dissatisfaction within the party with party leader Kim Gi-hyeon for delaying an immediate response to the innovation committee’s demands for a sacrificial attitude by party leadership and forcing the committee to wrap up its activities with little to show for its efforts.

At a briefing after the committee’s meeting at the party’s Yeouido office earlier in the day, John Linton, the chairperson of the committee, said, “We are concluding all innovation committee meetings today. We will raise the last innovation proposal on Monday [to the party’s Supreme Council], make a white paper and wrap things up.”

“I think we’ve succeeded in doing about half of what needs to be done,” Linton added. “We will leave the other half to the party and wait a little longer while keeping expectations high.” Initially, the innovation committee had been slated to continue its activities through Dec. 24.

Of the six items voted on by the innovation committee, the only ones that the party leadership immediately accepted were the revocation of disciplinary actions against Hong Joon-pyo, Lee Jun-seok, and Kim Jae-won and the pledge to forfeit immunity from arrest for lawmakers.

“I am grateful to the president for carrying out his Cabinet reshuffle early, before the closure of the innovation committee, to create an opportunity for good candidates to come forward for the election,” Linton said.

He added that he is also grateful to Kim, the party leader. “I have learned plenty from this opportunity of serving as the chairperson of the innovation committee, and am grateful for the opportunity to see the difficulties and hardships one has to face in politics.”

When in an official recommendation by his committee Linton recommended on Nov. 3 that the party’s leadership, old guard, and those with close ties to Yoon either run in opposition strongholds or not run in the general election at all, Kim and the party mainstream immediately rejected the proposal.

The squabble over who was more attuned to the president’s desires appeared to be escalating into a power struggle, with Linton saying, “President Yoon signaled that he trusts me to act as I see fit.”

However, when Yoon held a two-hour luncheon meeting with Kim and other members of the party’s leadership on Tuesday, there were observations that Yoon threw his weight behind Kim. The next day, Kim met with Linton for 17 minutes, asking that the innovation committee chairperson “understand that we can’t accept [the proposal] right away.

Linton conceded, saying that he had “confirmed Kim’s willingness to make sacrifices and innovate,” and began to wrap up his committee’s activities.

Despite this quiet parting of ways, there has been substantial grumbling about Kim, who had promised to give the committee “full power,” only to deny it authority.

“It’s time for them [party leadership] to reflect on themselves and see how much they’ve thought about sacrifice and how much effort they’ve made,” Lim Jang-mi, a member of the innovation committee, told reporters.

Kim said he would pass on the innovation committee’s calls for “sacrifice by the mainstream” and “bottom-up nominations” to the nomination committee, which will be starting its activities in the coming weeks, but whether they will be implemented remains an open question.

People Power Party lawmaker Ha Tae-keung wrote on Facebook, “The innovation committee has worked very hard, but the whole situation seems anticlimactic due to the party leadership’s non-cooperation. The people have only confirmed that party leadership under Kim Gi-hyeon has no strong urge to be innovative.”

Ahn Cheol-soo, another ruling party lawmaker, also told reporters after meeting with Linton at the National Assembly that afternoon, “I think we have failed to carry out any kind of innovation. Linton and I each proposed our own remedies, but I think the patient has rejected the treatment. It is now the turn of Kim and the party’s leadership to answer for the sacrifice of the innovation committee.

By Son Hyun-soo, staff reporter; Sun Dam-eun, staff reporter

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