Discussing policies to counter the crisis, however, he didn't explicitly discuss his own course of action or party reform plans. Moreover, some are expected to criticize Choe for simply trying to dump responsibility for the party's current crisis situation onto its former leader.

Grand National Party(GNP) head Choe Byung-yul holds a press conference at the Seoul Press Center in Seoul on Tuesday./Yonhap

In a debate before major media outlets, Choe said, "The crisis our party is facing started with the collection of illegal campaign funds connected with the presidential elections the year before last." He went on to say that the GNP's support dropped precipitously as the campaign funds scandal grew and the party was blamed for incidents like the delivery of money -- literally by the truck-load -- to the party's headquarters. "Even up till now, with two months left before the general election, the party cannot escape the shackles [of the scandal]."

In particular, he raised the argument that former party head Lee Hoi-chang is responsible for the party's mess. "No matter who looks at it, Lee Hoi-chang, who was then presidential candidate, is at the middle of the illegal campaign funds scandal... The crux of the issue is not whether he knew [of the money] or not. This is what the citizens think," he said.

He also said, "Lee once said that he took full responsibility for the illegal campaign funds, and if he had to go to jail, he would." Putting pressure on Lee in a roundabout way, he then said, "Even though he said this, I think he must be deeply concerned seeing the reality of a GNP mired in an illegal election fund quagmire from which it cannot escape."

About the vote to spring former party head Suh Chung-won from prison, Choe said, "From right here I apologize sincerely to the citizens. As party head, the responsibility is mine." He also demanded something be done, saying, "Rep. Suh will not look away from the people's fury at this moment."

He then said, "We must now resolutely break the chains of political corruption that solidly bind us and move foward." He displayed a strong desire to liquidate the past, saying, "We must take responsibility for our own mistakes, and the party must be reborn as political party of the citizens possessing unlimited responsibility."

To bring this about, Choe proposed 1) the party repay its illegal campaign funds through sales of its own property; 2) the pushing of a "nomination revolution; 3) pushing reform so far within the party that by the beginning of March it will look like the "New Grand National Party"; 4) a promise to form a general election improvement committee with others from within and without the party.

Concerning his own course of action, he said, "As party head, I've asked the party's nomination committee a long time ago to judge whether I was doing the most I could to help bring victory to the party in the general elections. I will follow their decision." In this way, he did not concretely mention whether he would refuse re-election, run in a proportional representation district, or resign from his position as party head.

(Park Du-sik, dspark@chosun.com )