DP shifts into election mode, launches Lee Jae-myung campaign team
The center-left Democratic Party of Korea officially went into election mode by announcing major hires for its new election campaign committee Wednesday with a focus on "social unity."
Among the high-profile hires for Lee campaign are conservative figures including Yoon Yeo-joon, former environment minister during the Kim Young-sam administration in the late 1990s; and Lee Seok-yeon, former Minister of Government Legislation under the Lee Myung-bak administration in the late 2000s.
Yoon, 85, will serve as the standing co-chair of Lee's campaign team along with floor leader Rep. Park Chan-dae.
Also joining Lee's camp are former three-term conservative lawmakers Lee In-ki and Kwon Oh-eul. The two former lawmakers and Lee Seok-yeon will lead the subcommittee directly under Lee that will be tasked with national cohesion.
Besides, figures who were formerly parts of liberal administrations, such as Kang Kum-sil, former justice minister; Jung Eun-kyeong, former commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency; Kim Boo-kyum, former prime minister and Kim Kyoung-soo, former governor of South Gyeongsang Province who contended with Lee in the recent party primary, also joined as nonstanding co-chairs of Lee's campaign team.
Kim Dong-myeong, who leads the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, was also recruited as co-chair of the Lee campaign committee.
Wednesday's first round of announcement for the Lee campaign recruits was meant to highlight a need for bringing South Korean society together as a community to overcome economic and social setbacks in the aftermath of the martial law crisis that erupted in December, according to the party, which holds 170 parliamentary seats out of 300 at the National Assembly.
"Rather than being ideologically moderate, conservative or progressive, we are pursuing an election campaign committee to achieve unity in society for South Korea's (next) leap forward," said Rep. Kim Yun-duck, a three-term lawmaker who serves as the secretary general of the Democratic Party, in a briefing before the campaign launch.
Kim added the party's election campaign committee will "hear the voices of people in every neighborhood alley" to devise election campaign promises.
The party's announcement also suggested that the Lee campaign team will have 15 subcommittees directly under the auspices of Lee, including ones dedicated to demographic challenges, artificial intelligence technologies, climate change, Korean culture, balanced development and smart defense technology, among others.
Also, 35 more subcommittees combined under the Lee campaign team will deal with four pillars of the Lee campaign, namely supporting people's livelihoods, reducing economic inequality, promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula and achieving futuristic national goals.
On Sunday, Rep. Lee Jae-myung became the Democratic Party's presidential nominee as he cumulatively won 89.77 percent of votes throughout the primary nationwide. Lee is on his third attempt to run for president. The 61-year-old lost to former President Yoon Suk Yeol in the 2022 election by the smallest margin since the country's democratization in 1987: 0.73 percentage points.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Korea Herald
5 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Foreign inflow fuels Kospi rally
Foreign investors have poured nearly 4 trillion won ($3 billion) into the nation's benchmark Kospi so far this month, helping to drive a strong bullish run in the local stock market. Offshore investors net purchased shares worth 3.78 trillion won on the Kospi through Tuesday in June, continuing the 1.16 trillion won buying spree that began in May, according to data from the Korea Exchange, the nation's bourse operator. While they net bought shares worth 125 billion won on June 2, the amount surged on June 4, a day after the country's presidential election, to 1.05 trillion won, followed by a 980 billion won net purchase on June 5. On Monday and Tuesday, foreigners net bought shares amounting to 977 billion won and 634 billion won on the Kospi, respectively. The rally pushed the index to close daytime trading at 2871.85 on Tuesday, up 16.08 points or 0.56 percent, from the previous session. During intraday trading, the Kospi surged to as high as 2,885.67, nearing the 52-week high set at 2,896.43 on July 11 last year. The buying momentum has been partly fueled by growing expectations of political stability and reform following President Lee Jae-myung's election victory last week. 'With the inauguration of the Lee Jae-myung administration, expectations for revisions to the Commercial Act and efforts to address the 'Korea Discount' have stimulated foreign investor inflows,' said Lee Kyoung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities. 'Protection of minority shareholder rights and improvements in corporate governance — longstanding demands from global investors — remain key themes. Foreign investment flows into the Korean stock market have clearly improved against this backdrop of policy-driven optimism and attractive valuations.' Backed by the rally, the Kospi has emerged as the best-performing major stock market worldwide over the past week, outpacing key global indices such as Hong Kong's Hang Seng, Denmark's OMX Copenhagen 25 and Japan's Nikkei 225, according to a list compiled by financial platform While not exhaustive, the list features selected stock indices of significant size and market value. Year-to-date, the Kospi has risen 19.36 percent, ranking as the eighth-best performer globally. It trails Poland's WIG 20 index, the top performer so far this year, which has surged 24.67 percent, placing the Kospi roughly five percentage points behind. Among the indices that function as comprehensive market indices that reflect the overall performance of their respective national stock markets, the Kospi ranked behind only those of Russia, Germany, Austria and Hong Kong. The others, such as the WIG 20, were composed of a limited number of selected large-cap companies.
Korea Herald
9 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Lee Jae-myung picks vice ministers for finance, foreign affairs, industry
President Lee Jae-myung on Tuesday filled six vice ministerial posts to pursue a speedy recovery from the economic crisis, ahead of his departure for Canada to attend the G7 summit next week. The nomination was aimed at safeguarding national interests by quickly deploying human resources amid economic recession in Asia's fourth-largest economy, the presidential office said. According to Lee's office, Lee named Lee Hyoung-il, commissioner of Statistics Korea, as the first vice finance minister. Lim Ki-keun, administrator of the Public Procurement Service, will serve as the second vice minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Two vice-minister posts at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were also filled. Park Yoon-joo, minister of the mission of South Korea to ASEAN, and Kim Jin-a, dean of the language and diplomacy division at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, will serve as the first and second vice ministers at the Foreign Ministry, respectively. Moon Shin-hak, spokesperson of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, was nominated as the first vice minister of trade, industry and energy. Yeo Han-koo was also reinstated as the minister of trade, a vice-ministerial position. He served in the same position from 2021 to 2022 under the former liberal Moon Jae-in administration. Vice ministers in South Korea do not require a confirmation hearing at the National Assembly before their appointment to the posts. "We promise to restore the administration that suffered a rupture after (former President Yoon Suk Yeol's) insurrection in a speedy manner," Lee's spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said. "We will create a government capable of overcoming the (aftermath of) global protectionism." Meanwhile, the presidential office announced that public access to Cheong Wa Dae will be partially restricted from July 16 to 31 and fully suspended starting August, as preparations for relocating the presidential office from Yongsan back to the historic compound in central Seoul begin. The move marks a reversal of former President Yoon Suk Yeol's 2022 decision to vacate the site. Public visits to Cheong Wa Dae will resume once President Lee's office completes the transition. The presidential office added that Seoul has secured a budget of 25.9 billion won ($18.9 million) for the relocation procedures.
Korea Herald
11 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Yoon, wife to face special counsel probes
577 prosecutors, investigators allotted to look into ex-first couple President Lee Jae-myung's Cabinet on Tuesday passed bills to open three special counsel investigations into former President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife Kim Keon Hee. The bills are intended to "end the insurrection" that the Lee administration and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea accuse Yoon of instigating with his short-lived martial law decree on Dec. 3, 2024. At the second Cabinet meeting since Lee took office last week, the Democratic Party-led bills passed into law to bring together 577 prosecutors and investigators in total to investigate the former first couple. The combined size of the legal teams involved in the investigations is comparable to a district attorney's office. With Tuesday's passage, a special counsel investigation will look into if Yoon committed either insurrection or treason by trying to impose martial law. Yoon declared martial law late in the evening of Dec. 3, only to lift it six hours later following a National Assembly resolution that opposed it. The Democratic Party contends that Yoon attempted to provoke military action from North Korea with his hawkish policies to lay the groundwork for the declaration of martial law. Yoon's Ministry of National Defense playing anti-Kim Jong-un regime broadcasts along the inter-Korean borders from June 2024 was one example of the former administration deliberately seeking military confrontation with North Korea, according to the Democratic Party. Before their resumption last year, the border broadcasts had been used by the South Korean military as a psychological warfare tactic in the past, before they were halted in 2018 under then-President Moon Jae-in. The Democratic Party also claims that Yoon sent drones across the border into North Korea in October 2024, echoing Pyongyang's accusations that the South Korean military was behind the alleged drone infiltration. Yoon allegedly attempting to instigate an armed conflict with North Korea in the run-up to his martial law decree qualifies as "treason," the Democratic Party claimed, on top of being a "rebellion against the Constitution, which is to say, insurrection." Yoon's wife Kim is set to face a separate special counsel investigation that will scrutinize allegations she was involved in the then-ruling People Power Party's nomination of candidates for a National Assembly seat in the 2022 by-election. Another special counsel investigation would revisit the death of a Marine in July 2023. Cpl. Chae Su-geun, 20, died when he was swept away in moving water during a search and rescue operation to locate flood victims in a rain-swollen river in Yecheon, North Gyeongsang Province. The Democratic Party says Yoon's presidential office tried to impede the preliminary probe into Chae's death at the time to cover up possible wrongdoing at the top. Special counsels will be given as long as 170 days to investigate Yoon and his wife. Yoon was removed from office on April 4 in a unanimous ruling by the Constitutional Court over the martial law debacle, leading South Korea to hold an early presidential election on June 3.
