[AI Library] Chapter 5: Banished to the Wilderness for the Crime of Protecting the Constitution
The Han Dong-hoon Story
Chapter 5: Banished to the Wilderness for the Crime of Protecting the Constitution
Kim Kyung-jin
The Han Dong-hoon Story
PART 01 The Night He Chose Country over Faction · Original Text 05
On December 16, 2024, shortly after the impeachment resolution passed, Han Dong-hoon stepped down as party chairman. With senior officials resigning en masse and the leadership in collapse, there was no place for him to stand. At a press conference, he lowered his head. "I sincerely apologize to the people who suffered from this emergency martial law crisis."
"I tried to find a better path than impeachment, but ultimately failed. All of this is my fault for my shortcomings."
He took full responsibility for the party's division and the constitutional tragedy of the presidential impeachment.
But he added, "Though it grieves me to think of my disappointed supporters, I still have no regrets. I made a promise never to betray the Republic of Korea or its sovereign people, no matter what."
After his resignation, he withdrew from public life.
But the trials were not over. Those who had seized party control,the pro-Yoon faction, hardline supporters, and forces centered around far-right YouTubers,attacked him relentlessly. They branded Han Dong-hoon as a "traitor who colluded with the left."
Two seasons passed, and January 2026 arrived. The storm did not subside. It only grew fiercer.
On January 29, 2026, National Power chairman Jang Dong-hyuk passed a resolution for Han Dong-hoon's expulsion from the party. The executive council took only twenty minutes to ratify the decision.
To the man who had blocked martial law to defend the Constitution of the Republic of Korea and voted for impeachment to preserve conservative values, the party delivered the harshest punishment: expulsion.
It would be the final throes of those hostile to the Constitution.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, sixteen lawmakers, and some out-of-office party chapter heads issued a statement. "This is an anticonstitutional and undemocratic expulsion. The leadership must resign." Most editorial pages called it "Yoon running wild again." The Chosun Ilbo's commentary criticized it, saying, "After losing power through the self-destruction of martial law, are they now destroying the party itself?"
On the day they drove Han Dong-hoon out, the people finally understood clearly who the true conservative was and who was the counterfeit. Han Dong-hoon lost his party affiliation but won the people's hearts. Now he is cast out beyond the walls, forced to walk alone into the harsh wilderness. The man who did not flinch before a gun barrel on that winter night now stands alone in the freezing cold, stripped of all titles and bare-bodied in the wilderness. The burden of that night when he had to turn his back on colleagues of twenty years, the stigma of being called a traitor, and the expulsion from the party,all of these weigh upon his shoulders.
But history will remember.
It will remember who first said, "This is wrong," on the night when the country faced its greatest peril. Who was the person who chose our country over our side, knowing he would lose everything.
This is not the end. It is the beginning of a new story.
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Kim Kyung-jin
Attorney · Former Member of the National Assembly · AI Policy Researcher
© 2026 Kim Kyung-jin. All rights reserved.