Kang Declares Death of UPP “Unavoidable”

Kang Ki Kab, the sitting president of the beleaguered United Progressive Party (UPP), has declared the break-up of the party to be unavoidable.

Kang, who went on hunger strike on the 3rd in a last bid to inspire reform and prevent the UPP’s complete disintegration, told a press conference at the National Assembly today, “I had hoped to create a miracle by giving up everything, even salt water, but the miracle didn’t happen and the time to extinguish my last hope has come.”

“I went from emergency reform committee chairman to party president, but I could not cleanse the UPP of its shameful mistakes, nor could I stop it from breaking up,” he went on, adding, “The breakup of the party is now inevitable.”

Lee Jeong Mi, a spokesperson for the UPP, told reporters, “Just now lawmaker Lee Sang Kyu, supreme council member Yoo Sun Hee and former policy head Lee Ui Yeop came to President Kang to discuss things, but they did not put forward a way to resolve the issue and simply apologized. The president has declared the breakup of the party, so the reformist group will proceed with that process.”