Rep. Song Young-gil (left), who registered as a candidate for party leader at the Democratic Party of Korea's Aug. 17 national convention, and Kim Yong, a former deputy director of the Democratic Research Institute who registered as a supreme council member candidate, arrive at a closed-door Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly on Friday to address the controversy over their candidacy eligibility. Song's eligibility was questioned over his less than six months of party membership since rejoining, while Kim's was disputed over unpaid membership dues. (Yonhap)
Rep. Song Young-gil (left), who registered as a candidate for party leader at the Democratic Party of Korea's Aug. 17 national convention, and Kim Yong, a former deputy director of the Democratic Research Institute who registered as a supreme council member candidate, arrive at a closed-door Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly on Friday to address the controversy over their candidacy eligibility. Song's eligibility was questioned over his less than six months of party membership since rejoining, while Kim's was disputed over unpaid membership dues. (Yonhap)

The Democratic Party of Korea's Supreme Council has decided to allow Rep. Song Young-gil and former Democratic Research Institute deputy director Kim Yong to run in the party's national convention despite failing to meet candidacy eligibility requirements. The party leadership agreed to refer a motion granting both candidates eligibility exceptions to the party executive committee.

Chief spokesperson Kang Jun-hyeon said the Supreme Council held a meeting at the National Assembly on Friday morning and voted to recognize eligibility exceptions for Song and Kim. The decision came one day after a late-night emergency meeting Thursday failed to reach a conclusion.

The central issue in the eligibility dispute was the candidates' failure to meet the party's "right-bearing member" requirements. Under Democratic Party rules, anyone seeking to run in an internal party election must hold right-bearing member status — defined as having joined the party at least six months before election day and having paid membership dues at least six times within the preceding year.

Song left the party in 2023 amid allegations of involvement in a cash-envelope vote-buying scheme, then rejoined after being acquitted. His obstacle was that the period between his readmission on Feb. 27 and the candidate registration date on Thursday fell short of six months. Kim is serving a prison sentence after receiving a prison term on appeal for allegedly accepting bribes from a private developer involved in the Daejang-dong project. He was reportedly unable to pay dues at least six times over the past year due to a frozen bank account.


shee@heraldcorp.com