Former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo noted in Kona, Hawaii, “It feels like my heart, which was tightly blocked, is wide open” and added that “It seems that my heart, which was torn during the process of the People Power Party presidential primary and confirmation, where I spent more than 30 years, is being somewhat healed.”
On the 12th (local time on the 11th), former Mayor Hong shared a photo taken in front of his accommodation, stating on social media (SNS), “The Pacific Ocean of Big Island Kona, seen from the veranda.” He added, “The wide-open horizon is opening my tightly blocked heart” and “I think I will soon adapt to the time difference after having a good night's sleep last night.”
Former Mayor Hong was confident about passing the internal primary for the 21st presidential election. However, as the momentum shifted and he failed to reach the finals, he declared his departure from the People Power Party, where he had been for 30 years, along with his retirement from politics.
After a period of silence, former Mayor Hong criticized the atmosphere within the People Power Party leadership, which seemed to support former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo for candidate unification, saying that all this was a “planning operation by forces from former President Yoon Suk-yeol's camp.”
Meanwhile, former Mayor Hong directed blunt criticism towards former President Yoon, Emergency Countermeasures Committee Chairman Kweon Young-se, and Floor Leader Kweon Seong-dong, calling them “the ‘X’ that led the party to catastrophe,” and demanded their retirement from politics. Earlier, when former Representative Hong departed for Hawaii on the 10th, he remarked “Natural justice” after the membership vote rejected the nomination of former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, calling for the political expulsion of the pro-Yoon mainstream core lawmakers.