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By Park Ji-won
An eight-term lawmaker of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP), Suh Chung-won, quit the party, Wednesday, saying he felt responsible for its election defeat last week.
Suh, who had been a key loyalist of former President Park Geun-hye, wrote on Facebook that leaving the party was his "last duty."
"Today, I leave the party where I have worked for a long time. I thought about leaving for two years since a defeat in the general elections. I thought this was the right time," Suh said.
He had been the lynchpin of the pro-Park faction that was involved in a conflict with former LKP leader Hong Joon-pyo last year as Hong was trying to drive out pro-Park lawmakers, responding to Park's arrest on charges of bribery and abuse of power early last year. Last December, Hong decided to remove Park from the party while suggesting pro-Park lawmakers, including Suh, quit accordingly. Suh refused to leave the party.
Hong stepped down last week as party leader as part of taking responsibility for the defeat in the elections.
Mentioning the main reason is a continuing conflict between the pro-Lee Myung-bak and pro-Park factions, Suh criticized the party, saying the "LKP is mired in tornado of distrust. Still, there is no answer for that."
He said conservative politicians who have stirred public anger by failing to maintain conservative values should take responsibility, urging politicians to restore the "missing politics" and make the conservative party firmly protect the country again.
Suh started his career as a reporter in the country's largest conservative newspaper Chosun Ilbo, and became a politician in 1980 as a vice chairman of an opposition party.
Suh is known to have been in a close relationship with Park since around 1998 when the former president ran in a by-election.
Last month, four-term lawmaker Kang Ghil-boo bolted from the party following a feud with Hong over Hong's handling of party affairs.
