Party steps up grassroots outreach around Chuseok holiday
Constitutional referendum targeted for first half of next year
'Mega-growth' regional strategy takes shape
Kim Min-seok vows monthly awards for legislative work
The Democratic Party of Korea, entering the Chuseok holiday period, has identified livelihood issues, constitutional reform and its "mega-growth" regional development strategy as the three pillars of its political agenda. The party aims to steady itself after turbulence over the second-term cabinet appointments and rebuild momentum through field-based outreach and tangible policy results.
Party leadership plans to intensify its grassroots activities around the Chuseok holiday, political sources said Thursday. Kim Min-seok's recent string of field visits and the rapid launch of multiple policy task forces reflect the party's intent to deliver policy outcomes that ordinary citizens can feel in their daily lives.
"Gauging public sentiment during Chuseok and bringing down prices are the top priorities," Democratic Party spokesperson Shin Hyeon-yeong said in a phone interview. "The biggest task is to keep expanding our field presence, look into the hardships facing ordinary people and translate that grassroots sentiment into policy." She added that "it is important for the party to keep working to demonstrate policy results and competence."
Senior party figures expressed hope that the Chuseok break could mark a turning point after a run of unsettling developments. "When a wave of crisis hits, people calm down again and a period of rest follows," chief spokesperson Park Seong-jun said by phone. He added that after the holiday the party would "strengthen itself through field work and livelihood issues."
Alongside the livelihood push, constitutional reform is the other major initiative Kim is driving. The Democratic Party officially launched its constitutional reform task force on Sunday and set a goal of reaching a bipartisan agreement on a revised constitution and putting it to a national referendum by no later than the first half of next year.
At the task force's inaugural press briefing, Kim stressed that President Lee Jae Myung had repeatedly expressed his commitment to constitutional reform and urged the opposition parties to engage in substantive discussions. The proposed revision would enshrine the May 18 pro-democracy movement in the constitutional preamble, restructure the system of government and political institutions, and expand social and economic rights.
Kim Tae-nyeon, head of the constitutional reform task force, said it was "necessary to put an agreed draft to a national referendum by the first half of next year" in order to keep the process as far removed as possible from the 2028 general election.
The party's "mega-growth" regional development strategy is also gaining momentum. The Democratic Party and the government have set a goal of introducing special legislation to support mega-development zones this month and passing it before the end of the year. Work to flesh out region-specific growth strategies is proceeding in parallel through a special committee chaired by Kim.
The various policy task forces Kim has launched in rapid succession are expected to enter a phase of delivering concrete results after the holiday. At a supreme council meeting on Tuesday, Kim said the party would "launch a party-wide livelihood policy competition starting after the Chuseok holiday, selecting and rewarding the best policy and legislative work protecting people's livelihoods every month."
"Each task force will have its own timeline," spokesperson Shin said. "There will come a time to assess how each goal is being achieved, and we will keep pushing — whether through legislation or field activities — and check on progress."
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