President Yoon was always absent whenever there was “ousting” in PPP

President Yoon Seok-yeol, who is on a state visit to the Netherlands, visits the Lee Joon-hwa Memorial in The Hague on Wednesday (local time) and talks with Lee Ki-hang, the spouse of Lee Joon-hwa Academy President Song Chang-ju. Yun will leave the country on Thursday and return home on Friday morning. Yonhap News Agency

Was it a coincidence or was it inevitable?

The "cleanup" of the ruling People's Power Party’s key figures who had been in an uncomfortable relationship with President Yoon Suk-yeol, including the former PPP leader Kim Gi-hyeon who resigned on December 13, all came at a time when Yoon was out of the country for reasons such as an overseas trip.

Kim stepped down from the PPP leader on Wednesday, saying, "The success of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration and the victory of the PPP in the general election are so urgent orders of history and times.” The day before, lawmaker and PPP member Jang Je-won, who is a key member of the pro-Yoon Suk-yeol faction, announced that he will not run in the general election.

The "ouster" of former lawmaker Na Kyung-won ahead of the party convention in March was also carried out when Yoon left for a six-day state visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on January 14. This was at a time when former lawmaker Na was weighing her candidacy for the presidency. It was a time when Na was weighing whether she would run for leader of the party.

The day before his departure, Yoon dismissed Na from her posts as vice chairman of the Presidential Committee on Low Birth Rate and Aging Society and ambassador for climate and environment.

Even though Na expressed her intention to resign from her posts, Yoon did not accept her resignation but intentionally fired her.

As a result, Na announced that she would not run in the election for the party leader on January 25.

Yoon was also absent during the process of ousting Lee Jun-seok last year. After the party's Central Ethics Commission voted to suspend Lee from party membership for six months on July 8 last year, discussions on making a transition to an emergency leadership committee began in earnest on July 31.

The Central Ethics Commission started disciplinary proceedings once again against Lee because he used the phrase "Crying out wine and selling vinegar" to criticize President Yoon and his aides. Even at that time, Yoon had left for New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.