Jung Chung-rae, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, apologized over the controversy involving nomination donations in the 2022 local elections.
Jung said in a post on Facebook on the 3rd, "During the last local election process, a very disgraceful incident broke out in the Democratic Party. As the leader of the Democratic Party, I apologize for causing great disappointment, hurt, and anger to the public and our party members."
Jung said, "We have taken action against those involved in the incident under a zero-tolerance principle, and we will continue to take corresponding disciplinary measures the party can impose," adding, "As a police investigation is expected, the party will provide every possible cooperation. We ask the police to conduct a swift and thorough investigation with not a single suspicion left."
Jung went on, "We will excise the affected area. We will turn this incident into an opportunity in disguise," stressing, "We will strictly adhere to the newly revised party constitution and regulations on nominations. We will eradicate corruption by cutting it off at the root and blocking it at the source so that no one can even dream of wrongdoing." He also pledged to actively use the nomination complaint system to be established at the central party and to launch a "clean election secret inspector team" to mete out stern punishment by the party leader's authority immediately upon detecting election corruption.
Jung emphasized, "They say you fix the barn after losing the cow, but we will build the barn thicker and higher so this never happens again, and we will thoroughly block even the holes that let in briquette gas from below," adding, "In the June 3 local elections, we will repay you with cleaner and fairer nominations."
Jung also mentioned the "one person, one vote system" he is pushing. He said, "In line with the Lee Jae-myung popular sovereignty government, the party must be transformed into a fully member-sovereign party," adding, "The basic principle of democracy is to return the authority to make political decisions from the few to the many, and from the many to all members."
He added, "It is to advocate for intraparty democracy in which all members exercise authority equally, rather than a few exercising much authority," saying, "This is why I have been arguing for the one person, one vote system for more than a decade." Jung added that he would relaunch the one person, one vote system immediately after the by-election for the supreme council member.