The Democratic Party of Korea formed the Special Committee on the Integration of Daejeon and South Chungcheong and Development of the Chungcheong Region (Chungcheong Special Committee). It organized a group at the party level to push related legislation just a day after President Lee Jae-myung called for the integration of Daejeon and South Chungcheong before the June 3 local elections next year.
Park Soo-hyun, the Democratic Party's chief spokesperson, met with reporters after the supreme council meeting at the National Assembly that day and said, "At today's closed-door supreme council meeting, we approved an agenda item to establish the Chungcheong Special Committee."
Supreme Council member Hwang Myung-seon will serve as standing chair, and Park Beom-kye (Seo-gu-eul, Daejeon), Park Jeong-hyeon (Daedeok-gu, Daejeon), and Lee Jeong-mun (Cheonan-si-byeong, South Chungcheong) will serve as co-chairs along with lawmaker Lee Kwang-hee (Seowon-gu, Cheongju, North Chungcheong), whose constituency is in North Chungcheong.
Regarding the background of the special committee's launch, chief spokesperson Park explained that it was "an expression and starting point of the party's intent to back the president's state philosophy of balanced national growth through administrative integration and to implement it firmly." The previous day, President Lee, at a luncheon with 14 Democratic Party lawmakers from Daejeon and South Chungcheong, said, "We must make it possible to elect a new head of the integrated local government in next year's local elections."
The Democratic Party plans for the Chungcheong Special Committee to discuss the name of the "integrated city," among other issues, and to prepare a bill on the Daejeon–South Chungcheong integration by March at the latest next year. In particular, as the push for administrative integration of Daejeon and South Chungcheong accelerates, attention is on whether an actual integrated metropolitan leader will be elected in next year's local elections.
Democratic Party lawmakers from Daejeon and South Chungcheong held a press conference at the National Assembly's briefing room that day and said, "We decided to work closely with the government to responsibly prepare a feasible integration plan," adding, "We agreed to push this forward with the goal of electing an integrated metropolitan autonomous leader in the June local elections next year."
After the press conference, lawmaker Park Jeong-hyeon said, "If we draft the bill and go through a deliberative process, the first phase will probably be finished by the end of (next) January," adding, "If it is referred to the Public Administration and Security Committee (of the National Assembly) in February and we also hold a public hearing, then if things move quickly it could pass in early March, or if it is a bit delayed, around mid-March, and it will proceed without clashing with the local election schedule." Given the local election timeline, the integration law for South Chungcheong and Daejeon and the redistricting plan must be handled at a plenary session by March at the latest.
However, within the ruling bloc, there is also an uncomfortable view that the presidential office's push for integration is an attempt to boost specific candidates, including Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik.
Within the People Power Party, there is a mood of welcoming the integration push while insisting the party must not cede the initiative to the Democratic Party.
In fact, the "Daejeon–South Chungcheong special city integration" idea was floated in Nov. last year by Daejeon Mayor Lee Jang-woo and South Chungcheong Gov. Kim Tae-heum of the People Power Party, and Rep. Seong Il-jong introduced a related bill in Sept. Kim Do-eup, the People Power Party's policy committee chair, said at a meeting that day, "We welcome the fact that President Lee responded to the Daejeon–South Chungcheong integration that the People Power Party has consistently advocated," but added, "Because administrative integration is a very complex and delicate national task, the ruling and opposition parties must put their heads together."
Some also predict that once concrete discussions begin at the working level, difficulties will be unavoidable. The earlier proposal for integrating Daegu and North Gyeongsang has also effectively stalled, with disagreements continuing over issues including whether to enact a special law, how to conduct public debate among local residents, the integration model, and plans for fiscal and administrative operations.