Ruling party leadership race heats up as ex-PM officially enters contest

Kim Min-seok, former prime minister, poses after giving a speech for his Democratic Party of Korea leadership bid in Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City, Monday. Yonhap

The race to lead the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is underway, with former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok formally entering the contest Monday ahead of the party's Aug. 17 convention, when members will elect a new leader and Supreme Council members to serve a two-year term.

Kim, a four-term lawmaker who served as the Lee Jae Myung administration's first prime minister, announced his bid in the Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City, pledging to bring the DPK into closer alignment with the presidential office. He framed his candidacy as a corrective to what he described as a breakdown in party-government relations under the outgoing leadership.

"As the prime minister who was the president's governing partner, I understand the direction of state affairs more deeply than anyone else," Kim said during a speech officially announcing his bid for the party leadership. He added that he would draw on his experience of steering the party through local, parliamentary and presidential elections to support the success of both the party and the government.

"To achieve the success of the Lee administration — a key task of the party — the DPK should reform itself first. Over the last year, the party failed to link Lee's support with the election results. Self-serving politics have thrown the party and party-government cooperation into disarray," Kim said.

The remarks appear to target current DPK leader Jung Chung-rae, who has faced criticism within the party for strained relations with the presidential office and for the DPK's failure to capitalize on Lee's high approval ratings in the June 3 local elections. The party won 12 of 16 metropolitan mayoral and gubernatorial races but lost the Seoul mayoralty and several closely contested parliamentary by-elections.

Jung, whose term ends in August, stepped down from the post on June 23 in a potential move to run in the leadership race. He has yet to announce his candidacy officially, but he has been steadily expanding his outreach to party members, visiting sites symbolic to the DPK's progressive base.

Jung visited Bongha Village, the hometown of former President Roh Moo-hyun, and paid his respects at Roh's tomb — a gesture widely read as an appeal to the party's base and an attempt to cast himself as the rightful heir to the DPK's figures.

"Building upon the historic legacies of (former presidents) Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun and Moon Jae-in, let us write the successful history for Lee Jae Myung. I will strive for both internal party unity and broader national unification to guarantee the success of the Lee Jae Myung administration and ensure we retain power," Jung wrote Monday on social media.

Rep. Song Young-gil, former DPK leader and six-term lawmaker, is also expected to announce his bid within this week, according to sources.

Early polling suggests Kim holds a commanding lead in the Jeolla provinces, a core DPK stronghold. A survey of 1,001 adults aged 18 and older in North Jeolla Province and the Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City, conducted July 4 to 5 by polling agency STI for OhmyNews, put Kim at 44.2 percent support, followed by Jung at 20.4 percent and Song at 15.4 percent.