"President has no interest in consecutive terms … opposition should stop nitpicking"

Task force outlines power-structure overhaul, expanded social rights as key pillars

Party vows full support for government amid push to deliver on livelihood issues

Democratic Party of Korea leader Kim Min-seok delivers congratulatory remarks at a ceremony marking the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 19 Pyongyang Joint Declaration and the inter-Korean military agreement, held at the National Assembly members' office building on Friday. [Yonhap]
Democratic Party of Korea leader Kim Min-seok delivers congratulatory remarks at a ceremony marking the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 19 Pyongyang Joint Declaration and the inter-Korean military agreement, held at the National Assembly members' office building on Friday. [Yonhap]

The Democratic Party of Korea officially launched an internal constitutional reform task force Sunday, kicking off a drive to amend the constitution with a focus on enshrining the May 18 pro-democracy movement and overhauling the country's power structure.

Party leader Kim Min-seok called on the opposition to abandon what he described as a wasteful political dispute over demands that President Lee Jae Myung renounce any bid for consecutive terms, and urged them to engage instead in substantive constitutional reform talks.

Speaking at a press conference to mark the task force's launch, held Sunday morning at the party leader's conference room in the main National Assembly building, Kim said President Lee had "expressed his commitment to constitutional reform on multiple occasions and clearly addressed the obstacles the opposition has raised," adding that "in fact, there were never any real obstacles to begin with."

On the opposition's demand that Lee publicly renounce a consecutive term, Kim said the president "had clearly understood, since internal party debates during the presidential campaign, that he had no intention of serving consecutive terms and that it was structurally impossible under the current system." Kim added that Lee had shown even greater respect for the National Assembly's authority than Kim himself or former policy committee chair Jin Sung-joon, who had debated alongside Lee at the time.

"It is strange to keep demanding that someone declare they are giving up something they never wanted in the first place — as if they had harbored some hidden intention," Kim said. "Let us move away from nitpicking and toward a serious discussion on constitutional reform."

Kim outlined three core directions for the constitutional reform effort: enshrining the May 18 Gwangju pro-democracy movement and the Busan-Masan pro-democracy uprising in the constitution's preamble, reforming the power structure and political system based on national consensus, and guaranteeing basic social rights and a foundational welfare society.

On the question of including the spirit of May 18 in the constitutional preamble, Kim pressed the People Power Party directly. "Is there any reason for the PPP — which claims to be the heir of President Kim Young-sam, who made May 18 a defining part of his civilian government's historical identity — to oppose this?" he said, urging the party to "fully embrace May 18 and put an end to its anti-May 18 stance."

Kim also made the case for a unifying constitutional reform that would underpin a government focused on people's livelihoods. "Following the president's press conference, the Democratic Party will go all in on livelihood issues," he said. "The essence of constitutional reform must likewise be reform for the people's livelihoods and for national unity."

Kim said the party would "carry forward and complete the legacy of former President Kim Dae-jung's successful governance and consecutive ruling-party tenure, former President Roh Moo-hyun's pursuit of national unity, and the constitutional reform effort that former President Moon Jae-in formally put on the agenda." He added: "This is a time for the nation, the people, democratic forces and the party alike to rally more firmly around President Lee Jae Myung, and the party will give everything it has to support the president and the government."


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