With second-week regional primary results for the Democratic Party of Korea's Aug. 17 national convention set to be announced, attention is turning to potential ranking shifts among the eight supreme council candidates — Choi Min-hee, Kim Yong, Kim Yeong-ho, Seo Mi-hwa, Han Min-su, Lee Sung-yoon, Park Seon-won and Im Mi-ae, listed in ballot order. Key variables include whether Park, who holds a constituency in Incheon and currently sits in second place, can close the gap on the leader, and whether Im, who draws support from Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, can mount a strong showing. Depending on how party sentiment shifts this week, the contest between pro-Lee Jae Myung and pro-Jung Chung-rae factions for the senior supreme council seat is expected to grow more intense.
The Democratic Party will announce second-week regional primary vote shares from Jeju and Incheon on Saturday, and from Gangwon Province, Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province on Sunday. Party members with voting rights in those two regions account for roughly 11 percent of the total, limiting their direct impact, but there is anticipation that the results could offer a preview of sentiment in the higher-stakes Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Honam regions. Jeju tends to track Honam, while Incheon often moves in tandem with the broader Greater Seoul area.
The central question in the Incheon primary is whether Park can narrow the gap with Choi, who leads the field. Choi currently holds a combined vote share of 22.58 percent, putting her 6.17 percentage points ahead of Park, who has 16.41 percent. With the two candidates effectively representing the pro-Lee and pro-Jung factions respectively, their competition for the senior supreme council seat is also coming into sharper focus.
Appearing on KBC Gwangju Broadcasting on Saturday, Park said "it would seem too presumptuous of me to say out loud that I'm going for the senior supreme council seat, so I'm being very careful about that," but added that "even so, the president, the party leader, the floor leader and the senior supreme council member must work in very close coordination. There cannot be any discord among them."
Competition for the last qualifying spots on the supreme council is equally tight. After last week's regional primaries, Kim Yong sat in fifth place with 12.41 percent, just 1.07 percentage points ahead of Lee Sung-yoon in sixth at 11.34 percent. The rivalry has already turned sharp: after Lee used the phrase "juseok-yacheong" — meaning the Honam region favors Kim Min-seok by day and Jung Chung-rae by night — Kim Yong fired back, saying "the tragedy of Honam is not your campaign tool" and demanding that Lee "immediately delete the post and apologize to the people of Honam and the bereaved families of victims." The exchange was widely seen as a sharp rebuke.
Im built her political base serving as a county and provincial assembly member in North Gyeongsang Province and is expected to use this week's regional primaries to attempt a comeback in the rankings. She and Kim Yeong-ho currently occupy the lower tier of the field with single-digit vote shares.
Speaking at a joint campaign event in Jeju on Saturday, Im said, "shouldn't we build a leadership that has the generosity befitting a ruling party — one that calls not just for party loyalty but for the people?" She added: "In Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, people cast their votes knowing full well they may not count, yet they steadily send us their support. I find that heartbreaking and deeply moving, and I ask that you remember there are comrades out there still running with the Democratic Party flag held high."
This week's primary results are also seen as a potential variable in the broader supreme council race. There is speculation that the pro-Lee Jae Myung camp may move to consolidate its candidates in response to the pro-Jung faction's strategy of concentrating votes behind Choi, Han and Lee. However, with more than 70 percent of party votes concentrated in the Honam region and Seoul and Gyeonggi Province on Aug. 15 and 16, many caution that it is too early to draw any firm conclusions.
addressh@heraldcorp.com
