Kim Min-seok–Choo Mi-ae Public Clash Signals a Looming Battle for the Party's Future
As Democratic Party of Korea leader Kim Min-seok and Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae have clashed publicly for days, Governor Choo took to Facebook to push back on the 20th, bringing to the surface a feud between the party leader and a governor of the same party. Their confrontation is seen as a signal that the contest for dominance within the party ahead of the June 3 local elections is heating up in earnest.
Governor Choo's rebuttal was swift. On Facebook on the 20th, she directly countered Kim's claims, writing, "The festival's dependence on provincial subsidies (the share of subsidies in total operating costs) stands at 77.5 percent — excessively high for its results." In another post, she wrote, "The Ministry of the Interior and Safety should stop acting as a spokesperson trying to save Kim Ji-yong, Yoon Suk-yeol's hired gun." Since the 12th, Choo has been pressing President Lee Jae-myung, asking, "Why are you trembling in fear, carried along by the insurrectionist forces?" and urging the withdrawal of the nomination of Kim Ji-yong, a former prosecutor, as head of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials.
Behind this lies a growing perception that Governor Choo, eyeing the next presidential race, is seeking to rally her support base by capitalizing on the decline in President Lee's approval ratings. An ideological rift also plays a role. Since taking the party helm, Kim has championed expanding the party's reach to centrists and conservatives, but he is assessed as drifting apart from a faction within the party demanding a consolidation of the traditional base and bold reform.
Following Governor Choo, ruling-party prosecution-reform advocates Supreme Council member Lee Seong-yoon and lawmaker Kim Yong-min each posted Facebook messages criticizing Kim Ji-yong's nomination. Senior lawmaker Woo Won-shik wrote on Facebook, "It is truly painful to watch them fight as if there were no tomorrow," adding, "I hope public assessments that the political power struggle over the next administration has already begun are untrue. If not, it must stop immediately."
