Former Democratic Party leader Jung Chung-rae speaks during a press conference at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on July 13.NEWS1
Former Democratic Party (DP) Chairman Jung Chung-rae on Monday declared his bid to run for DP chief again, vowing to unite the ruling party, facing internal factionalism, and support the Lee Jae Myung administration.
“As we've done so far, the party, the government and the Blue House will continue to work as one, and we will stand by President Lee Jae Myung until the end,” Jung said in a press briefing at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul. “I'll give it my all to help the Lee administration govern smoothly and help the DP stay in power.”
With Jung's announcement, the lineup for the leadership race to be decided in the DP national convention scheduled for Aug. 17 is effectively set.
Jung joins the five-way DP leadership race against former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, former DP leader Song Young-gil, DP Rep. Ko Min-jung and former Gangjin County council chief Kim Bo-mi, who all declared their bids last week.
Jung stepped down as DP leader on June 24 to run again for party chief at the DP convention. Under Korean party rules, one must resign from the leadership post before registering as a candidate to run for the position again at the national convention.
Jung, a four-term lawmaker, secured the DP chief post in August of last year and oversaw the June 3 local elections, in which the ruling party won 12 of 16 mayoral and gubernatorial seats. If re-elected, this would mark his second term as DP chief.
The DP, however, lost in the key Seoul mayoral post, as the main opposition People Power Party’s (PPP) Oh Se-hoon won his fifth term by defeating DP candidate Chong Won-o by about 1 percent. The PPP also won 95 of the 227 posts in smaller local governments nationwide, while the DP won 119.
"Although we won 12 metropolitan races and 119 local government races, our failure to win Seoul overshadowed the results; it was a painful disappointment," Jung said. "Based on our party's review of the local election results, I will do everything I can to help us win the next general elections [in 2028].”
Jung, however, stressed that he will not “use the DP leader post as leverage to run for president.”
Jung's primary rival, Kim Min-seok, who served as President Lee's first prime minister, warned that the DP must choose the right leader to ensure stability within the party and the government.
Former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, left, speaks with former Democratic Party leader Song Young-gil during a workshop in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, on July 13.NEWS1
"If we don't choose a new party leader with the right leadership and direction this time, our party will be in trouble," Kim said during a DP members' forum in Anyang, Gyeonggi, on Monday. "The president will be in trouble too, and so will the government."
He is a four-term lawmaker who has served as a senior DP supreme council member from 2024 to 2025.
Song announced his bid on Wednesday after returning to the National Assembly as a lawmaker following his victory in a parliamentary by-election on June 3. He is a six-term lawmaker and served as DP leader from May 2021 to March 2022. He also served as mayor of Incheon from 2010 to 2014.
Ko, a two-term lawmaker, first won a seat in the parliament in 2020 and served as a DP Supreme Council member from 2022 to 2024. Before her political career, she worked as a Blue House spokesperson from 2019 to 2020 under the liberal Moon Jae-in administration.
Democratic Party Rep. Ko Min-jung speaks during a press conference at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on July 8.NEWS1
Kim Bo-mi, meanwhile, served two terms as a Gangjin councilmember and was elected chair of the county council in 2022, becoming the youngest head of a local council in Korea at 32.
The DP will also elect new members of the supreme council at the upcoming national convention.
DP lawmakers from the pro-Lee Jae Myung faction, including Reps. Park Sung-joon and Kim Young-ho, have entered the race as of Monday.
DP leader candidates, meanwhile, are divided over a proposal to introduce a new voting system for its upcoming national convention. Under the proposed system, voters would rank candidates in order of preference.
If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, the last-place candidate will be eliminated. The votes cast by people who picked that candidate as their first choice would then be added to the totals of the candidate they ranked second. If there is still no majority winner, the process would be repeated until one candidate receives more than half of the vote.
Jung has opposed the proposal, arguing that the party's rules require a separate vote rather than deciding the winner by redistributing second-choice votes. Kim, meanwhile, has said he will accept whatever election rules the party adopts.
