Former National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik [Yonhap]
Former National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik [Yonhap]

Former National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik announced Sunday that he would not seek the Democratic Party leadership at the Aug. 17 national convention, citing what he called an overheated and damaging race for the chairmanship.

Woo posted on Facebook that day, asking, "Whose Democratic Party is this? What is this national convention even for?"

"If we wound each other, mock each other, pick at each other's flaws and deepen divisions throughout this convention, what will be left for our party afterward?" he wrote. He added that "degrading slurs that are hard to even utter are being deployed to attack rivals within the party."

The remarks were widely read as a rebuke of the increasingly fierce competition between some supporters of incumbent party leader Jung Chung-rae and Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, who is expected to return to party politics.

"As someone who has spent a lifetime as a member of the Democratic Party and walked alongside ordinary people on the ground, I can no longer bear to watch the party's division and discord," Woo added. "Let us move forward as a larger, united Democratic Party — not one defined by wounds and division."

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party is set to shift into full convention mode starting this week ahead of the Aug. 17 national convention.

Party leader Jung is expected to step down from his post Wednesday to launch his bid for a second consecutive term, while Prime Minister Kim is set to return to the party once the confirmation hearing for his designated successor, Han Sung-sook, wraps up Thursday and Friday.

Assembly member Song Young-gil has also kept the door open to a run and is continuing preparations to enter the race in earnest. Supporters of each camp have begun rallying behind their respective candidates, with the contest for control of the convention already underway.


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