Democratic Party Leaders Clash Again Over Centrist Outreach

INCHEON — Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok and former leader Jung Chung-rae clashed again over the party's strategy for broadening its support base, eight days after the two agreed to patch up their differences at a dinner hosted by President Lee Jae-myung on the 19th. The two had traded barbs during the party convention. When Kim argued at a lawmakers' workshop that the party must extend its base to include moderate conservatives and referred to Jung's view that "there is no center," Jung immediately expressed his displeasure in public.

According to political sources on the 28th, Kim laid out his plan at a lecture during a Democratic Party lawmakers' workshop held on the 27th at the Inspire Hotel on Yeongjong Island in Incheon, saying the party should put livelihood issues first and widen its base of support to win the general election and stay in power. His point was that the party needs to draw in moderate conservatives beyond its existing supporters to build a stable majority rather than a temporary electoral win.

During the lecture, Kim described a conversation he had with Jung to illustrate the gap between their views. "I talked with former leader Jung, and his position is that unity is what ultimately brings victory. He thought there is no center," Kim said. "Jung tends to see it as there being no center at all, only swing voters who move around." He added, "The president and I believe that expansion toward moderate conservatives is needed on top of our original traditional base of support, and that after the insurrection it has become unavoidable."

Kim also made clear his opposition to the "ABC" argument put forward by writer Yoo Si-min, stressing the need to widen the party's reach. Criticizing Yoo's argument, he said, "Approaching this with the sentiment of the days when people were shouting anti-imperialism does not work." He added, "The path to staying in power is not simply securing a majority once in an election. We have to move from holding a temporary majority to a structural one."

Jung criticized Kim in a Facebook post shortly after the lecture. "I express my regret that he named me at the workshop and used me as a tool for developing his own argument," he wrote, adding that "making one-sided claims while naming a competitor is violent." He went on to say, "What it means is that so-called centrists support the ruling party when the ruling party acts like a ruling party, and support the opposition when the opposition acts like an opposition."

After Jung's public pushback, Kim moved to smooth things over on X, formerly Twitter. "I also respect former leader Jung's remarks and arguments," Kim wrote. "Let's debate, understand each other and start again."