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By Ahn Chang-hyun, Staff Writer　

The atmosphere was heavy Wednesday morning at a joint meeting of Grand National Party (GNP) Supreme Council members and prominent lawmakers at the party’s Yeouido headquarters. The leadership, responsible for finding a balance and spearheading the campaign for the April 27 by-elections, instead erupted with talk about crisis. Some lawmakers present even contended that the GNP was not behaving like a political party.

Former party Chairman Chung Mong-joon said, “The process of deciding upon candidates for the by-elections has shown the crisis within the party.”

“A lot of South Koreans are concerned about whether [the selection of a candidate for the Bundang-B seat] was an appropriate candidate selection or a power struggle,” Chung added. “We need to seriously think about what the Grand National Party exists to do as a party, what values we are aiming for.”

Lawmaker Nam Kyung-pil said, “The party is headed down the road of every person for themselves without accomplishing anything. This is not a political party.”

In particular, Nam cited President Lee Myung-bak’s decision to scrap a plan to build a new airport in the southeastern region of the country in criticizing the lethargy of a party unable to even decide upon a platform.

“What is the party going to argue in the next general and presidential elections?” he questioned.

The day before, GNP floor leader Kim Moo-sung said at a general meeting of lawmakers, “A major crisis is coming upon us,” noting, “In addition to the ‘crisis of trust’ following the cancellation of the airport plans, we are faced with a number of divisive issues that could result in a drop in public sentiment, including skyrocketing key money deposits, rental costs and consumer prices.”

While the party’s junior faction and other members have expressed pessimistic views in the past, it was unusual for the senior leadership to join the dialogue about crisis. Underlying this is the fear that the GNP could suffer a rout in the general elections that lie one year ahead. This fear has been spawned by the party’s lethargy, and specifically by its failure to come up with plans for addressing public sentiment that is turning against the GNP over a number of contentious issues. President Lee Myung-bak further fueled the sense of crisis among the party leadership by saying that he would not be seeking to hold anyone accountable.

“A mood of crisis has been touched off with discussion over whether we might lose the race for the Bundang-B, which was previously thought to be in the bag,” said a senior party official. “The ruling party has done nothing well since the defeat in last year’s local elections, so if we accomplish nothing we are clearly going to lose big in next year’s general election.”

Some observers have also offered a political interpretation of the talk of crisis, viewing it as a strategy to undercut the current leadership, including GNP Chairman Ahn Sang-soo.

A first-term GNP lawmaker in the greater Seoul area reported at a closed general lawmaker’s meeting Wednesday, “We need to change the [party] leadership system regardless of the outcome of the by-elections.”

“There is an increasingly widespread perception that something is wrong with the current leadership,” said a lawmaker and party official. “It is looking as though the general meeting might go on throughout the month of April in search of a course for the ruling party.”

Another possibility is that the crisis talk within the party may function as a catalyst for reorganization of the party’s power structure, depending on the outcome of the April 27 by-elections.

There are also signs of listlessness within the Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House). The issues of high commodity prices and key money deposits show no signs of improvement, and the selections of a site for a science business belt and Land and Housing Corporation construction lot remain conundrums. In particular, officials within the Cheong Wa Dae expressed dismay over President Lee Myung-bak’s declaration at a special press conference on Apr. 1 that “there has been no punitive reshuffling.”

“One of the criticisms South Koreans have about the Lee Myung-bak administration is that ‘no one takes responsibility for mistakes,’” an official said.

“There are a lot of people within the Cheong Wa Dae who are thinking about next year’s general election or gaining employment on the outside at the end of the term, so discipline has slackened in a sense,” another official said. “There are concerns that the Grand National Party may go to work undermining the Cheong Wa Dae depending on how the April 27 by-elections turn out.”

Some at the Cheong Wa Dae have also talked about how Chief of Staff Yim Tae-hee’s grip on the organization and confidence among employees has diminished conspicuously compared to early on in his tenure last year.

Meanwhile, the Lee Myung-bak administration was reportedly giving serious consideration to plans for a decentralized distribution of facilities in the planned international science business belt, with a key heavy ion accelerator facility and basic science research institute to be placed in the Chungcheong region and branch institutes in the Yeongnam and Honam regions.

The plan for placing the main basic science research institute in Chungcheong and site labs in Yeongnam and Honam was included in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology’s January 2010 announcement that Sejong City was “suitable as a base region for the science belt.” But observers are predicting growing controversy with objections from Chungcheong over the plan, which is being called “a political ploy to smooth over the scrapping of the southeast airport plan.”

During his presidential run in 2007, Lee Myung-bak pledged to build the science belt in the Chungcheong region.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]