Kim Jong-in (76), head of the Minjoo Party of Korea's emergency committee concluded his efforts to replace the current lawmakers by reorganizing the pro-Roh faction. Kim Jong-in's change, which seemed to circle the key pro-Roh group, ended by ousting six-term lawmaker Lee Hae-chan (64), the head of the pro-Roh group.

Earlier, the Minjoo Party picked out mainstream lawmakers Moon Hee-sang, Yoo Ihn-tae, Shin Geh-Ryoon and Kim Hyun, along with lawmakers with pro-Roh tendencies who were categorized as the Chung Sye-kyun group, Kang Gi-jung, Jun Byung-hun, and Oh Young-sik, but the blade never pointed at former party leader Moon Jae-in or the key groups close to Moon. Some experts claimed that Kim narrowed the scope of the changes among the pro-Roh group, to give the party some room to breathe since it lacked human resources, and to block any possibility of opposition at the organization level. Yet at the same time, by digging out the center, Kim could maximize the symbolic and practical effect of ousting the pro-Roh dominance.

Lee Hae-chan was the biggest topic of the Minjoo Party's "change" for the parliamentary elections. Kim presented the discarding the dominance of any one faction among the basis for the change, and Lee, after all was the symbol of a pro-Roh member within the party for he was a heavyweight who had served as prime minister during the Participatory Government. He is also the chairman of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation.

During the 13th general elections in 1988, Lee was a member of the Party for Peace and Democracy led by former President Kim Dae-jung. Lee ran in the Gwanak 2 District in Seoul and defeated Kim Jong-in, then the Democratic Justice Party candidate, to begin his career in the National Assembly.

At first Lee was not subject to the in-depth review for he was not among the lawmakers with grades in the lower 50%. His competitiveness in the general election was also expected to be not so bad in Sejong-si, his constituency. The Minjoo Party conducted a survey after selecting another former senior official in the Participatory Government instead of Lee, but the approval ratings were much lower.

Yet from the beginning, word leaked out that the emergency committee was considering excluding Lee in the list of candidates for the upcoming election. The Minjoo Party kept delaying the announcement of the party candidate for Lee's constituency and pressured Lee to step down voluntarily, but Lee celebrated the opening of his campaign office on March 12 and clearly showed he had no intention to resign. Thus the party announced its decision to exclude Lee from the party's candidate list.

Kim played a key role in excluding Lee from the list of party candidates. In a meeting of the emergency committee, Kim said, "We need to make a decision for the whole concerning constituencies as well. I will play the villain." In particular, he had no choice but to cut out a person who symbolizes the pro-Roh group to seek an advantage in the competition against the People's Party in the Honam region, where anti-Roh sentiments run high.

Some experts claim that the non-Roh members within the party ousted Lee in order to secure the upper hand in the power struggle after the elections and also to create an excuse for the opposition to come together. Others said that Kim, who regards himself as the "king maker," would have preferred a situation where various presidential candidates gather their own followers and compete within a manageable scope rather than have the power concentrated on former party leader Moon Jae-in. This day, Moon met with a reporter and said, "I have nothing to say (on the exclusion of Lee from the list of party candidates)" and could not hide his complex feelings. Reportedly, Moon received news of Lee's exclusion from Kim the previous night.

Lee strongly opposed the party's decision. Lee discussed his response with his aides at Sejong-si. During the discussions, Lee reportedly poured out his anger saying, "Kim is running this party as he wants under the excuse of making a political decision. He is engaging in politics with injustice and personal feelings. I have never tolerated such politics." Lee is scheduled to announce his official position on March 15. We cannot rule out the possibility of Lee strongly criticizing Kim and leaving the party to run as an independent candidate.