Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok and his predecessor Chung Chung-rae, who traded sharp words during the party's leadership race, clashed again at a workshop for the party's lawmakers. Kim stressed the need to expand the party's reach to moderate conservatives and cited Chung's remark that "there is no center" in effectively critical terms. The exchange came eight days after the two pledged at a dinner hosted by President Lee Jae-myung on the 19th to patch up their differences.
Speaking as a lecturer at the Democratic Party lawmakers' workshop held at the Inspire Hotel on Yeongjong Island in Incheon on the 27th, Kim said the party must put people's livelihoods front and center and widen its reach to moderate conservatives to build a structural majority, in order to win the general election and stay in power. Despite criticism from the traditional base that backed Chung during the leadership race, Kim again laid out his plan to secure a stable governing foundation by broadening the party's support base.
In the process, Kim described a conversation he had held with Chung. "I talked with the former leader, and his position is that unity is ultimately what wins. He thought 'there is no center,'" Kim said. "The former leader tends to see it as there being no center at all, only swing votes that move around." He added, "The president and I believe that expansion toward moderate conservatives is needed on top of our original traditional support base, and that after the insurrection it has become unavoidable."
Kim went further, publicly rebutting writer Rhee Yu-mi's ABC theory and holding firm on the need to broaden the party's reach. Of the ABC theory, he said, "Approaching this with the sentiment of the days when people shouted anti-imperialism does not work." He stressed, "The path to staying in power is not simply securing a majority once in an election. We have to go from holding a temporary majority to a structural majority."
Chung took issue with Kim's remarks in a Facebook post after the keynote address ended. "I express regret that he named me at a workshop and used me as a tool for developing his own argument," he wrote. "Making one-sided claims while naming a rival is violent." He added, "What it means is that so-called moderates support the ruling party when the ruling party acts like a ruling party, and support the opposition when the opposition acts like an opposition."
As the friction escalated, Kim wrote on X, formerly Twitter, "I also respect the former leader's words and arguments. Let us debate, understand each other and start again."
Separately, Prime Minister Han Seong-sook presented the significance of the government's mega-project initiative and plans to push it forward at the lawmakers' workshop. "Mega-projects are necessary for region-led growth and balanced development," Han said. "We will pull together the capabilities of the entire government."
