Kim Min-seok, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, has proposed lowering the threshold for forming a negotiating bloc in the National Assembly to 15 seats from the current 20, opening talks on uniting the progressive camp. The idea is to use political reform, including the eased bloc requirement, as a basis for a stronger alliance with progressive parties. But the Rebuilding Korea Party immediately called for a further cut to 10 seats, exposing differences at the outset of the unity talks.
Kim told a supreme council meeting at Daejeon City Hall on the 16th that the party would "begin a full-scale push for sweeping unification," according to political sources on the 17th. "I understand that Rep. Park Beom-kye, who heads the grand unification committee, will begin contacting the three progressive parties and the Rebuilding Korea Party starting today," he said.
"We have already held talks with each of the progressive parties on the basis of easing the negotiating bloc requirement, introducing runoff voting, making reasonable adjustments to the electoral system and consolidating candidacies for competitiveness," he added. The aim is to build a framework for cooperation between the Democratic Party and progressive parties through a lower bloc threshold and electoral system changes.
Kim had earlier floated the 15-seat threshold on the party's YouTube channel "Minty07." "From what I have heard, the parties appear to see about 15 seats as realistic and acceptable as a starting point," he said. "If the progressive parties other than the Democratic Party all combine, forming a negotiating bloc is possible."
The plan is to revise the rules so that non-bloc parties — including the Progressive Party, the Social Democratic Party, the Basic Income Party and the Rebuilding Korea Party — can expand their influence in the Assembly, and to use that as the starting point for a progressive alliance.
The Rebuilding Korea Party pushed back immediately, saying that lowering the threshold to 15 seats alone would fall short of the purpose of political reform. Cho Kuk, head of the party's innovation policy institute, wrote on Facebook on the 16th that the "20-seat standard for a negotiating bloc in the National Assembly is a relic of the Yushin era, introduced by Park Chung-hee's dictatorship in 1973 to squeeze the opposition." Cho argued that "lowering this standard to 10 seats is a 'normalization' that corrects a distorted parliamentary democracy."
The Democratic Party says that with talks now under way, it will seek common ground through further consultations. Asked about the Rebuilding Korea Party's demand for a 10-seat threshold, chief spokesperson Park Sung-joon said, "Because the floor for discussion has now opened, there will be ample room for further discussion."
