On the 30th, Seo Wang-jin, floor leader of the Rebuilding Korea Party, said, "Neither Representative Cho Kuk nor any other member of the party has ever engaged in working-level discussions about a merger with the Democratic Party," adding, "We express strong regret at seeing figures from the ruling camp raise a baseless 'secret deal' even in private conversations as they look for lines of attack."
In a Facebook post the same day, Seo said, "Do not drag the Rebuilding Korea Party into your party's complicated calculations and infighting," and "Do not insult the leader of a friendly party with a baseless 'secret deal' claim."
He went on, "Do not use a friendly party as a tool of political engineering; at least show basic courtesy," adding, "Discourteous flights of imagination toward comrades become seeds of division, not unity." Representative Cho Kuk shared the post on his Facebook and expressed agreement.
The "secret deal" Seo mentioned was spotted the previous day in a Telegram exchange between a Democratic Party of Korea leadership lawmaker and a Cabinet member on the floor of the National Assembly. In the Telegram chatroom photographed by Newsis, a Cabinet member sent messages saying "Secret deal? Attack material" and "Must reveal whether there is a secret deal." The person also added, "Party name change not allowed, divvying up not allowed."
The Democratic Party lawmaker replied, "Yes. It is not desirable that it is Tong's view that something must be hurriedly done before the local elections."
The Cabinet member and the Democratic Party lawmaker who exchanged the messages are said to belong to the pro-Lee Jae-myung faction. As Representative Jung Chung-rae has recently pushed for a merger with the Rebuilding Korea Party, the pro-Lee faction has strongly opposed it, and this exchange is read in the same context.
After the funeral for the late former Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan concludes, conflict within the Democratic Party between the pro-Lee and pro-Jung Chung-rae camps over a merger is expected to intensify in earnest.