Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok declared on the 15th that he would "begin a full-scale push for grand progressive unification," announcing the start of merger talks with the Rebuilding Korea Party, the Progressive Party, the Basic Income Party and the Social Democratic Party.
Kim made the remarks at a party supreme council meeting he chaired at Daejeon City Hall, saying, "I understand that Rep. Park Beom-kye, who chairs the grand unification committee, will begin making contact in earnest with each of the three progressive parties and the Rebuilding Korea Party starting today."
"We have already spoken with each party using as our starting points the easing of negotiating bloc requirements, the introduction of runoff voting, reasonable adjustments to the electoral system and the unification of candidates based on competitiveness, and we have conveyed various messages to the progressive parties as well," Kim said. "On one hand, we will stabilize the party while strengthening our alliance with progressive forces."
Appearing that morning on the Democratic Party's YouTube channel program "Minti07," Kim proposed lowering the threshold for forming a negotiating bloc in the National Assembly to 15 seats from the current 20.
The Rebuilding Korea Party, however, responded warily to Kim's proposal, saying it had "held no formal or informal contact with the Democratic Party leadership regarding political reform, alliance or unification, and the Democratic Party has made no proposal." The party said "action, not words, is what is needed," calling for implementation of a previously agreed roundtable declaration and the formation of a political reform consultative body.
Kim also expressed his commitment to what he called "four-president unification," inheriting the philosophies, values and policies of the four presidents the Democratic Party has produced — former Presidents Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun and Moon Jae-in, and President Lee Jae-myung. "I will start the engine in earnest on all-around grand unification," he said. "We will accelerate in earnest the work of gathering all thoughts and opinions within the party under what can be described as four-president unification."
As part of that effort, he said the party would introduce a "youth speech contest" to honor past presidents under the themes of inheriting the philosophies, values and policies of the four current and former presidents and of innovation. The official name has been set as "I Am a Democratic President." "We will hold it as a youth speech contest for those in their teens through their 30s, also known as the four-president speech contest," Kim said. "It will be a festival of great unification that brings the party together from a future-oriented perspective through young people."
He also signaled a willingness to engage with moderate and conservative forces. "Through the mixed seating in the main chamber and the joint council on livelihood economy that I raised in my previous leadership address, we have achieved a first step toward realization," Kim said. "I will make mixed seating in the plenary chamber a reality without fail."
Kim also unveiled a plan to relocate the party's metropolitan and provincial chapters as part of party innovation. "The central party has a direction of relocating the metropolitan and provincial chapters as a whole," he said. "The direction is cultural, dignified and shared with citizens. We are considering both purchases and leases." To carry this out, the party formed an additional "task force for a major transformation of metropolitan and provincial party offices" and appointed Rep. Cho Seung-rae as its head.
