Reporter's Notebook Seeing Jo Gyeong-tae Anew

The name Jo Gyeong-tae carries multiple labels. 'Outsider', 'political turncoat', and a six-term lawmaker. Lined up together, these seem like contradictory tags. A person who failed to join the mainstream and even switched parties was repeatedly chosen by voters in one constituency six times over twenty-four years. To be honest, as a reporter, I had read him through only the first two labels until I witnessed a scene in the National Assembly plenary hall on the 2nd.

When the president's address to the nation concluded, the opposition benches emptied completely. Yet one six-term lawmaker remained in that vacant seat, and as the president descended from the podium, he walked over and extended his hand. I was curious. Why did he stay alone? What calculation, what background was there? The answer that came back embarrassed the one who asked the question. It was neither an explanation from his inner circle nor a strategic analysis. The answer came from a single news article from thirteen years ago. The Democratic Party member who alone stood during President Park Geun-hye's first address to the nation in 2013; the person who stood alone and applauded during the opposition's silent protest in 2015, asking "isn't it common sense and courtesy to applaud when a speech ends?" It was all him. It was not background but track record, not choice but habit. Then he was in the opposition, and now he remains in the opposition.

There are many politicians who have changed parties. However, politicians whose actions did not change even after switching parties are rare. While in the Democratic Party, he faced the mainstream and received disciplinary requests from 342 party members. In the People Power Party, he jumped over the National Assembly fence on the night of martial law to participate in the vote for its declaration, and was the first ruling party member to publicly raise the issue of presidential suspension of duties, only to hear opposition members at the party convention call him a 'traitor'. The fact that he was disliked by both sides, viewed in reverse, means he said the same thing to both sides. It was not that he lacked political acumen; it was that he chose not to exercise it.

A contrasting trajectory exists within the same party. Representative Ju Jin-woo was a figure from the presidential office's legal advisory role in the Yoon Suk-yeol administration who took the lead in defending against special prosecutor offensives targeting First Lady Kim Keon-hee. When the administration changed, he now raises suspicions of 'imperial golf' involving President Lee Jae-myung and his family, conducting paparazzi-style accusations that track the family's movements and helicopter transfers. The time it took for the spear that protected the First Lady to become a spear pointed at the First Lady is exactly the same as the time it took for the administration to change. The difference is between politics where the direction of the spear changes depending on who holds power, and politics where the person stands in the same position regardless of who holds power. The records of each politician tell us which represents true conviction.

We have grown accustomed to politics that fails to distinguish between opposition and discourtesy. In an era where booing the opposing party's president is considered courtesy and shaking hands becomes betrayal, a politician who voices opposition through voting and statements while maintaining appropriate respect seems rather unsophisticated. Yet democracy is fundamentally a system built upon that very unsophistication. Applauding when a speech ends and voting according to one's convictions in the ballot—that is all he has repeated for thirteen years.

A political turncoat is a bird that moves with the seasons. Yet when reading the records again, the perspective changes. It was the parties that moved seats with the seasons, and it may have been Jo Gyeong-tae who stood in the same place. 'Seeing anew' does not mean he has changed. It means we are finally reading his record correctly.