Ex-DPK leader Jung wins southeastern party-member primary in leadership race
Former Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) leader Jung Chung-rae, center, poses during a regional campaign event for the party's leadership and Supreme Council elections at BEXCO in Busan, Sunday. Rep. Song Young-gil, left, and former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, right, and are also running in the party's leadership race. Yonhap
Former Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) leader Jung Chung-rae won the party-member primary in the country's southeast Sunday, a day after his narrow loss to rival Kim Min-seok in the central region, as the party leadership race gets into full swing.
Jung beat Kim 46.65 percent to 43.85 percent in the primary vote cast by dues-paying party members in Busan, Ulsan and South Gyeongsang Province, according to party officials.
Their rival and third candidate Song Young-gil garnered 9.5 percent.
With Sunday's win, Jung bounced back from his narrow defeat to Kim in the central Chungcheong region from a day earlier, where Kim edged out Jung 45.05 percent to 44.61 percent.
Jung's Saturday loss was seen as a setback as the Chungcheong region is considered his home turf.
The DPK's leadership race has primarily been a competition between Jung, who has long aligned with the DPK's hard-line wing rather than fully backing President Lee Jae Myung, and Kim, a key political ally of the president.
The DPK is set to hold the national convention Aug. 17 to elect its new leader, who will play a key role in overseeing the nomination of candidates for the April 2028 parliamentary elections.