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What's in a name? Beleaguered opposition party plans rebrand, new focus ahead of June elections.

Published: 12 Jan. 2026, 15:48 Updated: 12 Jan. 2026, 18:15

Jang Dong-hyuk, leader of the People Power Party, leaves after a Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly on the morning of Jan. 8. [LIM HYUN-DONG]

Sixty-eight percent of the conservative People Power Party’s (PPP) dues-paying members — those who have paid at least 1,000 won ($0.68) in party dues for three months or longer — support a recent push led by party leader Jang Dong-hyuk to change the party’s name.

The PPP has moved to formally begin the renaming process based on the result, but critics say the makeover will have limited impact without a more fundamental shift in the party’s direction.

“The party will push ahead without wavering from Chairman Jang’s ‘winning change,’ starting with the party name revision,” Secretary General Jung Hee-yong said at a Supreme Council meeting on Monday.

The party surveyed all dues-paying members — about 774,000 people — from Friday to Sunday using an automated response system phone poll. About 195,300 members responded, for a 25.24 percent response rate, and about 133,000 of them supported changing the party’s name.

Jung said the party also received roughly 18,000 suggestions for a new name, adding that the survey showed members’ “desire for a winning change and a new beginning” through a name change. Some of the suggestions included words such as “republic” and “freedom,” he said.

Led by Rep. Seo Ji-young, the party’s head of publicity, the PPP plans to run a public contest for a new party name through this weekend. After the contest ends, outside experts will review submissions, and the party aims to wrap up the renaming process before the Lunar New Year holiday.

After the meeting, Chief Spokesperson Park Sung-hoon told reporters the party was “working to find a name that can best embody the party’s identity and conservative values,” adding that the goal was to become “an opposition party that can support a new future and Korea.”

Park Geun-hye, then the Saenuri Party’s presidential candidate, talks with Kim Jong-in in October 2012. [KIM SEONG-RYONG]

Asked whether the party’s colors could change as well, Park said “nothing has been decided,” while adding that “many party members want things not to change.”

Calls are also growing both inside and outside the party for the rebranding effort to go beyond a new name and include substantive reforms. In 2012, former President Park Geun-hye, then the emergency committee chair of the Grand National Party, changed the party’s name to the Saenuri Party and changed its focus by putting “economic democratization” front and center in the preamble to its platform.

The Saenuri Party, then the ruling party near the end of the Lee Myung-bak administration, faced an unfavorable electoral landscape, but the party's revamp helped it win both the parliamentary and presidential elections in succession.

In September 2020, former interim leader Kim Jong-in then rebranded the United Future Party as the PPP, focusing on broadening support toward the political center — including by kneeling at the May 18 National Cemetery in Gwangju and adding a basic income proposal to the party platform.

After Lee Jun-seok emerged as party leader and former President Yoon Suk Yeol joined the party, the PPP went on to win the 2022 presidential election.

People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok bows his head down in apology for former President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law, declared on Dec. 3, 2024, at a press conference held at the party headquarters in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Jan. 7, 2026. [LIM HYUN-DONG]

“If you have the resolve to change the party’s name, you should completely break with whatever has been wrong in your past practices,” six-term Rep. Joo Ho-young said on BBS Radio on Monday. He warned the party would be judged as spending heavily while “changing only the packaging with the contents staying the same.”

“Jang appeared to want to shed the party’s pro-Yoon image through a name change, but argued it would need to be paired with a fundamental expansion of its direction, like Park’s push for economic democratization,” Cho Won-bin, a professor of political science and international relations at Sungkyunkwan University. “If it doesn’t properly sever ties with the wrong past, a rebound won’t be easy.”

Meanwhile, a Realmeter poll conducted via phone calls from Thursday through Saturday of 1,006 adults nationwide found the PPP’s approval rating fell 2 percentage points from the previous week to 33.5 percent.

“Both the party base and the broader public still were not convinced they should give their support to the PPP, citing controversy over the party’s reform plans and disputes over how it handled allegations tied to former leader Han Dong-hoon’s party members-only bulletin board,” Bae Cheol-ho, Realmeter’s political editor.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY PARK JUN-KYU, YANG SU-MIN [[email protected]]