Jang Dong-hyuk’s Diplomatic Dilemma: How His US Trip Could Impact the Future of the People Power Party

People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyuk has remained defiant amid growing pressure inside and outside his party over his conduct following a trip to the United States. In a column, The Hankyoreh pointed out that when Jang returned on the 20th from an eight-night, ten-day U.S. visit, the third most-read story on the paper’s website that day was about him — prompting the column’s editor to ask whether the “pageview boost” that delighted newsroom staff would register the same way with ordinary citizens.

Ahead of the June 3 local elections, Jang spent 10 days in the United States and returned on the morning of April 20. At a press conference at the National Assembly he said, “I agonized over the decision to travel to the U.S. ahead of the local elections and anticipated controversy. I went despite that because repeated diplomatic missteps by the Lee Jae-myung administration have put South Korea in serious peril.” He added, “I established practical hotlines with key figures in the U.S. Republican Party to build a foundation of trust that can shore up a strained Korea-U.S. alliance. I also met senior U.S. officials, including contacts at the White House and the State Department, to discuss trade talks and other pressing economic issues and to open channels for continued cooperation.”

The People Power Party published a photograph from Jang’s trip purporting to show him meeting a State Department deputy assistant secretary, but because the image showed only the official’s back, observers could not identify the individual. The party said diplomatic protocol limited what it could disclose about the meeting.

On April 23, JTBC Newsroom published an exclusive report titled “[Exclusive] Identity of the ‘State Department official’ whom Jang met revealed.” The network said its fact-check team contacted the U.S. State Department, which confirmed that the official Jang met was Gavin Wax, chief of staff to the Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy. The State Department also said the meeting had been arranged at the request of the Korean delegation.

On April 27, Lee Yoo-jin, head of The Hankyoreh’s open desk, ran a column titled “Between the Pageview Fairy and 탈동혁,” opening with, “This week’s pageview (PV) fairy is Jang Dong-hyuk!” Lee wrote that the open desk team had benefited from the spike in traffic driven by stories about Jang and explained that the surge in attention coincided with growing controversy over what many described as an “empty-handed” U.S. trip. When Jang returned on April 20 and held a press briefing to tout the trip’s outcomes, his story ranked third among the most-read articles on The Hankyoreh’s site that day.

Lee noted the pattern persisted: as Jang’s pageviews climbed, his political situation worsened. From April 21 to 23, more than half of the top-five stories daily on The Hankyoreh’s site were related to Jang. The attention intensified when reporters raised questions about the accuracy of the party’s description of whom he had met; the official photographed from behind turned out to be an assistant chief of staff, not a deputy assistant secretary. The Hankyoreh said it had confirmed with the State Department that the official was Gavin Wax, chief of staff to Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers.

Lee concluded that despite mounting criticism, Jang remained unmoved and urged him to reflect on a line he once penned as the party’s former floor spokesperson: “If lies piled on lies continue, a political party can lose its identity like a frog slowly dying in warm water.”

Not all commentary singled out Jang as the only problem. On April 27, Kang Byung-han, chief of the political desk at Kyunghyang Shinmun, argued in a column titled “We Don’t Need Conservative Rebuilding” that the issues run deeper than one leader’s missteps. “Is Jang Dong-hyuk the only abnormality?” he asked. “Is the problem limited to him?” Kang described the conduct of the leader of the 107-seat main opposition as lamentable, noting the “back-of-the-head photo” episode spawned an unprecedented dishonesty scandal, but he urged readers to consider whether this was an isolated failure within a party that has not fully confronted the Dec. 3 insurrection.

Kang observed that critics blame Jang for being pulled by the party’s hardline base, but that base constitutes a majority of People Power supporters. He cited a Gallup Korea survey conducted in the fourth week of February after the first-instance verdict in the trial of former President Yoon Seok-yeol on Dec. 3-related charges: 68% of People Power supporters said the Dec. 3 emergency martial law did not amount to an insurrection, and 65% said a life sentence would be excessive. Kang argued that, while Jang should resign, his departure would not by itself guarantee meaningful change or conservative renewal within the party.

Kang added that if conservatism had mustered sufficient energy and a broader, more moderate base, the conservative leadership might have coalesced around a figure like former lawmaker Yoo Seung-min. Instead, Yoo’s limited appeal within the conservative camp may signal the difficulty of achieving genuine renewal.

He posed a central question: who will check the government and ruling party once they emerge stronger after the June 3 local elections? Balanced oversight, Kang argued, is essential for South Korea’s development and for any government’s success. If conservatism lacks both the capacity and the imperative to rebuild, who will play that role?

Kang urged the revival of progressive parties, contending that as some policies associated with conservative values are being implemented under the Lee Jae-myung administration, effective checks should come from the left rather than the right. He recommended that progressive parties take responsibility for areas the current government tends to neglect — including AI industry regulation, redistribution, equality, and human rights — and concluded that self-styled conservatives who have exhausted their historical mission should be voted out in the upcoming local elections.