Democratic Party of Korea leadership candidates Song Young-gil, Jung Chung-rae and Kim Min-seok (in ballot order) arrive at a joint campaign speech event for party leader and supreme council member candidates held at Kintex in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, on Sunday, ahead of the Aug. 17 party convention. [Yonhap]
Democratic Party of Korea leadership candidates Song Young-gil, Jung Chung-rae and Kim Min-seok (in ballot order) arrive at a joint campaign speech event for party leader and supreme council member candidates held at Kintex in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, on Sunday, ahead of the Aug. 17 party convention. [Yonhap]

The three candidates vying to lead the Democratic Party of Korea — Kim Min-seok, Jung Chung-rae and Song Young-gil — appealed for support at a joint campaign speech event Sunday in the Gyeonggi Province and Seoul area, centering their pitches on regional economic development ahead of the Aug. 17 party convention.

Speaking at back-to-back events at Suwon Sports Complex and Kintex in Goyang, each candidate sought to present himself as the most qualified to address Greater Seoul's pressing issues.

Kim outlined three priorities for Gyeonggi Province: leading the future through semiconductors, driving reform at home and abroad through policies such as a basic income and local currency, and normalizing the border region of northern Gyeonggi. "If I become party leader, I will give full support to Gyeonggi Province and Gov. Choo Mi-ae on these tasks," he said.

He added that Kim Min-seok and a new Democratic Party would open an era that normalizes the abnormal in the northern Gyeonggi border region, pledging to stake the party's and the government's fate on winning and ushering in a "K-Golden Age."

At the Seoul event, Kim took aim at Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon of the People Power Party, saying the party "must win by crafting Seoul policies and housing solutions that satisfy residents."

He also pledged to launch a "Seoul Policy Olympics" starting in September, before the formal primary election season begins, and to establish a Seoul policy unit within the party's central body. "Once the Seoul mayoral election is confirmed, I will design a dynamic new framework that unites all democratic and reform forces," he said.

Jung addressed his wide loss to Kim in the Honam region on Saturday, saying, "A farmer does not blame the field," and vowing to press on, "using my comrades' tears as straw sandals."

He framed unity and reform as his central themes. "We won when we were united and lost when we were divided," he said. "Reform is the Democratic Party's identity — we won when we reformed and were rejected when we failed to."

Jung also promised to urgently draw up housing supply measures to stabilize the Greater Seoul real estate market and to normalize the state housing developer LH, while vowing to push through a semiconductor cluster project in the Honam region "with drive, breakthrough power and speed."

At the Seoul event, Jung cited achievements from his tenure as party leader — including passage of three special prosecutor acts covering the insurrection case, first lady Kim Keon Hee and the Marine corporal Chae case, as well as an omnibus special prosecutor act and legislation establishing a dedicated insurrection trial court — and asked, "Can we afford to insult what President Lee Jae Myung and party members have achieved together over the past year?"

Jung also turned his fire on Kim, saying, "Those who put anti-Lee on their lips are the anti-Lee faction, and those who speak of division are the divisionists." He said the convention's true purpose was "winning the general election, winning the presidential election and establishing the fifth Democratic government."

Song highlighted Gyeonggi Province's character as a border region and stressed the importance of peace on the Korean Peninsula. "No matter how much we develop the economy or build an AI powerhouse, what happens if inter-Korean relations are shaken?" he said, pledging to work alongside President Lee Jae Myung to fulfill the unfinished work of former presidents Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun and Moon Jae-in in overcoming the national division.

Song also said he would "become a vanguard in changing the Cold War structure on the Korean Peninsula by making a North Korea-US summit a success," and asked voters to support him as "HBM Song Young-gil, who walks alongside President Lee Jae Myung in building a peace structure on the Korean Peninsula."

At the Seoul event, Song said he had proposed building 50,000 units of youth housing and that the government was reviewing the plan. He also called for minimizing the tax burden on single-home owners and easing regulations on regional development, social overhead capital and project financing to revitalize the construction sector.

Supreme council candidates continued their factional sparring on Sunday.

Park Seon-won, aligned with the pro-Lee camp, said that "despite the unbeaten streak of the 2024 general election and 2025 presidential election victories, an outdated leadership is making us precarious and anxious," while Seo Mi-hwa said the party leadership "must be quick and capable — able to read what the government intends with just a glance."

Han Min-su, aligned with the pro-Jung camp, appealed for voters to "judge those who advocate anti-Lee sentiment, divisionism and a new faction," in an apparent reference to Kim.

Choi Min-hee said Jung "led the charge in making Lee Jae Myung president more than anyone else, yet at some point was branded as anti-Lee," asking, "Is this how comrades in the same party should treat each other?"


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