Kim Min-seok joins DP leadership race, pledges party reform

Former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok on Monday officially declared his bid to run for ruling Democratic Party (DP) leader, pledging to reform the party after it secured an overall victory in the June 3 local elections but failed to win Seoul.

"If the Lee Jae Myung administration is going to succeed, the first priority is reforming the DP,” Kim said at Jeonil Building 245 in Gwangju. “I'm running for party leader because I believe it's my responsibility to help the party's future, even if it means facing disagreements within the party."

Kim’s bid comes after he stepped down from the prime minister role on Tuesday. He was the first prime minister under President Lee, serving from July 4 of last year.

Kim is also a four-term lawmaker, having last won a seat in the National Assembly as DP lawmaker in 2024. He also served as a senior DP Supreme Council member from 2024 to 2025.

If elected as DP leader at the national convention scheduled for Aug. 17, he will oversee the DP that secured a landslide victory in the June 3 local elections, where the ruling party secured 12 of 16 mayoral and gubernatorial seats.

Kim, however, stressed that the DP should not consider the election results as a success.  

"Over the past year, the DP has failed to turn public support for the president and the government into support for the party or wins in elections," he said.

The DP won most of the mayoral and gubernatorial elections, but it 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.

Other candidates reportedly set to run for DP chief post are former DP leaders Jung Chung-rae and Song Young-gil. 

Jung, a four-term lawmaker, served as DP leader from Aug. 2 last year to June 24, resigning after the local elections in a move seen as to run for DP leader again. Under Korean party rules, he must resign from the leadership post before he can register as a candidate to run for the position again at the national convention.

Song, a six-term lawmaker, served as DP leader from May 2021 to March 2022 and returned to the National Assembly after winning a parliamentary by-election on June 3. He also served as Incheon mayor from 2010 to 2014. 

The new DP leader will have the authority to nominate candidates for the 2028 general elections. 

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [[email protected]]