Rep. Lee Jae-myung, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), front row center, speaks during a press conference held on Friday after he and other lawmakers-elect paid tribute to the fallen soldiers at the National Cemetery in Dongjak District, Seoul. Yonhap

The April 10 National Assembly elections sounded the alarm for politicians that voters can make or break their careers.

They turned out in large numbers to vote against President Yoon Suk Yeol. The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) maintained its control of the Assembly with 175 seats out of a possible 300. The ruling People Power Party (PPP) barely secured 108 seats. With this number, the ruling party can only block the DPK's attempts to revise the Constitution, and there is nothing else it can do on its own.

The election result is a blessing for the DPK. But it shouldn't be intoxicated by this huge win.

The DPK didn't earn the victory by itself. Voters gave the main opposition party another chance to prove itself. Sick and tired of Yoon, more voters cast their ballots in favor of the DPK. Voters ordered the DPK to play a constructive role in the Assembly in order to change Yoon's course of action.

A triumph like this comes with huge responsibility. This is particularly the case when the nation is in polycrisis, tasked with various daunting foreign and domestic policy challenges. Opposition for the sake of opposing the ruling party — an old tactic the DPK has relied on in the past — will no longer be tolerated.

As seen in the latest election result, voters empowered certain politicians and parties with huge support. However, they can just as quickly withdraw their support if they believe the elected officials fail to live up to their expectations. To win their hearts, politicians need to keep checking if they are representing their constituencies properly. If they fail to do so, voters will turn their backs on them, just as they did on President Yoon in the April 10 elections.

To meet voters' expectations, the DPK should be born again and become a responsible political entity. It should stop Yoon when he is leading the nation in the wrong direction. However, the DPK should cooperate with the president when he needs Assembly support to fulfill his duties as the head of state.

The DPK's record during the 21st National Assembly was very disappointing.

Some of its members, particularly those labeled as Generation 586 politicians, who are the main force within the party, drew criticism for their self-serving behaviors. In 2021, for example, Reps. Woo Won-shik and Woo Sang-ho initiated a bill calling for perks to be granted to those who were persecuted during the pro-democracy protests as well as their families. Specifically, the bill seeks a quota for the offspring of perished democracy fighters regarding college admissions, the waiving of their tuition as well as incentives concerning employment opportunities. The main beneficiaries of the bill, if passed, would be their families or those of their colleagues. Because of this, the bill earned the nickname "self-serving measure." Dozens of other Generation 586 lawmakers from the DPK co-signed the bill. Facing mounting criticism from the public, they scrapped the measure. But last year they pushed for it once again ahead of the April elections.

The DPK tainted the nation's reputation by pushing through the passage of the controversial bill calling for a ban on human rights activists' flying of anti-Kim Jong-un leaflets to the North. Those who violated the measure faced three years in jail or were fined up to 30 million won ($21,660). It was ironic that the very people who had taken to the streets to fight for democracy in the 1980s introduced a measure to repress human rights and freedom of expression. The ban was lifted last September at the Constitutional Court's order.

There has been a change in the lineup of DPK members. Many of the Generation 586 politicians were eliminated in the selections of candidates to run in the April 10 elections on the DPK's ticket. Now Lee loyalists dominate the party.

With 175 seats, the new DPK is a behemoth in the legislative body. It can do almost anything it wants in the Assembly.

Two choices lie ahead for the DPK in the 22nd National Assembly. It can gain the public's trust as a party that prioritizes the livelihoods of the public over its partisan interests and is willing to sit down with the ruling party to seek bipartisan measures on key policy items. Or it can be an unbridled, irresponsible party that only cares about its partisan interests and clashes with the ruling party, thereby creating a kind of parliamentary limbo.

The ball is in the DPK's court. If the DPK repeats its behavior from the past four years, it will face grave consequences in the next presidential and general elections. If it strives to work for the betterment of the public's livelihood and cooperate with the ruling party, voters will choose it again at the next elections.