On March 17, Park Ji-hyun, co-chair of the Democratic Party of Korea’s emergency committee spoke on the ruling party figures who paid their respects at and sent flowers to the funeral of the father of Ahn Hee-jung, the former governor of Chungcheongnam-do in prison for raping his secretary, and said, “I was so angry, I wanted to seize them by their collars.”

This day, a video of Park’s interview was released on the YouTube channel “.face” and in the video she said, “When I saw how they had gone to the funeral of Ahn Hee-jung’s father, I was already sick (with COVID-19) and having a hard time, and I thought, ‘Really, what are these men doing?’”

Previously, ruling party figures including President Moon Jae-in and Democratic Party lawmakers either sent flowers or personally paid a visit to the funeral of Ahn’s father. This triggered attacks from inside and outside the party.

At the emergency committee’s first meeting on March 14, Park claimed she would “root out political sympathy” and pointed out, “There are still people in the Democratic Party who out of sympathy and connections based on alma mater, hometown, and blood ties, protect politicians who have violated social norms and universal principles. This will no longer be allowed in the Democratic Party, which must make painful reforms by chiseling away its problems starting today.”

In the interview this day, Park explained how she came to join the party and said, “In fact, when I found out that it was the Democratic Party, I had a hard time making a decision because the party had dragged on until the presidential election without properly resolving the sexual offenses by people in power, such as Oh Keo-don, Park Won-soon and Ahn Hee-jung, as well as the secondary victimization.”

Park said, “But I didn’t think they represented the Democratic Party,” and explained, “Many people call the Democratic Party of Korea, the Groping Party of Korea. Still it is a political party that holds a majority of parliamentary seats in this political circle, and I joined because I did not think it was right to just let things flow as they did. I joined because I wanted to call for change.”

As for some people comparing Park to People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok, Park said, “I know that he is the leader of the major opposition party, but it was not pleasant to be put on par with him in terms of political strategy or comments and actions.”

Park continued and said, “I think it may sound too arrogant to pass judgment on anyone’s politics, since it’s only been about forty days since I entered this political circle, but nevertheless, if I could say something, I think a person like Lee Jun-seok should not engage in politics.” She criticized Lee and said, “One should be able to sympathize with the pains of other people and listen to other people’s stories, but he is busy telling his own story. He works in a way that focuses on strategy only, and sure, it may work, but I don’t think that is a direction toward which a politician should walk.”

As for some criticism that Park herself only highlighted gender issues, she said, “How can tracking down digital sex crimes be a gender issue? It is a truly serious criminal issue in our society, but I think there are too many people who think like that in politics.” She further refuted, “I am not trying to resolve these problems because I am a feminist, am I?”

As for her future plans, Park said, “Since I have joined (the Democratic Party), I think I am already a politician, and many people tell me that they would like me to continue engaging in politics. I also feel a sense of responsibility on this, and think it is right that I continue.”