Han Dong-hoon, leader of the People’s Power Party, visits the Anyang Agricultural and Fishery Products Wholesale Market in Dongan-gu, Anyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, on December 1, where the roof collapsed during recent heavy snowfall. Yonhap News

Ahead of the re-vote on the “Kim Keon-hee Special Prosecutor Act” on December 10, there are signs of a continuing shifting tides centering on Han Dong-hoon, leader of the People’s Power Party and the pro-Han Dong-hoon camp. In response to the speculation that Han, who was backed into a corner over the party bulletin board controversy, is using it as a diversionary tactic, pro-Han Dong-hoon lawmakers said, “We are not ‘shooting blanks,” and that we are actually considering it. Many observers believe that Han is unlikely to accept the special prosecutor law, given the political fallout if it passes.

“I don't think it's likely that Han will accept a special prosecutor,” a key pro-Han official said in a phone call on December 1, adding that he will make a final decision after closely monitoring the status of the Myung Tae-gyun investigation. “There are opinions that the Special Prosecutor Act should be passed and opinions that it should be blocked even among us,” a pro-Han lawmaker said, adding that Han's stance is not a “scare tactic.” “We'll have to wait and see until December 10, when the re-vote takes place,” another key pro-Han official said.

Han recently told his aides, “I won't say anything in advance” about whether he will accept Kim's Special Prosecutor Act, which will be voted on again in the National Assembly plenary session on the 10th. On November 28, in response to a report by The Korea Times that he had told his staff that “we need to consider accepting a Special Prosecutor Act for Kim as a card to prevent unfair swaying of the party leadership.”, Han said, “That's not what I said.” The report was interpreted as a change in message from his previous stance of not accepting the Special Prosecutor Act.

The ambiguity of his stance was analyzed as an attempt to stop attacks from the pro-Yoon Suk-yeol faction over the party's bulletin board controversy. The pro-Han lawmakers believe that the presidential office is behind the pro-Yoon faction, including top committee members Kim Min-jeon and Kwon Sung-dong, who were among the first to criticize Han. Indeed, the pressure strategy seems to have worked. At the parliamentary plenary session on November 28, floor leader Chu Kyung-ho called for refraining from the debate over the party's bulletin boards, and the issue seems to have subsided somewhat.

However, it is unlikely that Han will embrace the Special Prosecutor Act or that pro-Han members will deflect during the revote. This is because passing the Special Prosecutor Act that includes allegations of first lady Kim Keon-hee’s interference in political nomination would be damaging to the presidential office as well as the ruling party, and Han will not be able to free himself from the “traitor frame. “If the Special Prosecution Act is passed, the ruling party will be destroyed,” said a pro-Han lawmaker.

“If he votes in favor of the Special Prosecutor Act and wants to turn the tables, he should have a plan to leave the party and form a negotiation body,” Lee Jun-seok, leader of the New Reform Party, said on CBS Radio on November 30.