On the 26th, Democratic Party of Korea Secretary-General Cho Seung-rae analyzed the race, naming six places—Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Ulsan, South Gyeongsang, and North Jeolla—as battleground areas, and said the goal is to win as many as possible. He then assessed the remaining nine, excluding North Gyeongsang, as being managed stably.
Meeting with reporters that day about the outlook for the June 3 local elections, Secretary-General Cho said, Battlegrounds are unfolding in Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Ulsan, South Gyeongsang, and North Jeolla within or around the margin of error, and added, Rather than dividing into slight leads or deficits, we classified battlegrounds based on the margin-of-error standard and see about six such areas.
If Secretary-General Cho's assessment holds, the metropolitan and provincial governments the Democratic Party is viewing as stable are nine areas—South Jeolla–Gwangju, Incheon, Daejeon, Sejong, Gyeonggi, Gangwon, North Chungcheong, South Chungcheong, and Jeju—excluding North Gyeongsang.
Cho also said, I don't want to split the standard of victory into some ratio, and emphasized, As I have said repeatedly, the goal is to win as many as possible, especially to maximize victories in the six battleground areas.
Cho also spoke about the battleground outlook. Regarding the Seoul race, he said, The evaluation aspect of four-term Mayor Oh Se-hoon is strong, and added, There will be a judgment on what he did over four terms. He went on, Candidate Oh is blaming the government or merely dragging out former Mayor Park Won-soon from six years ago, and pointed out, He is focused on negatives rather than vision and policy. He then said, With this approach, I don't think Seoul citizens will allow a fifth term.
On the Busan race, he said it is a contest between a new figure, Chun Jae-soo, and an old figure, Park Heong-joon, and assessed that hearts are increasingly gathering toward Chun Jae-soo as the candidate who will take responsibility for Busan's future.
On the Yeongnam region outlook, Secretary-General Cho said, We expect Daegu to gradually narrow into a close race, and added, Daegu citizens are likely considering a candidate who can work in step with President Lee Jae-myung to revive the Daegu economy. He also said that in South Gyeongsang, despite the characteristics of a mixed urban-rural area that includes counties, candidate Kim Kyeong-soo's competitiveness is gaining strength from the ground and the race remains tight.
On Ulsan, he said, While we agree on the need for a single candidacy, differences over the method are making talks difficult, and added, We will try until the end, but depending on circumstances, we are not ruling out each side running to the finish.
Regarding North Jeolla, considered a Democratic Party stronghold, he said, For North Jeolla to pioneer its future, residents are weighing whether to choose an independent governor or a ruling-party governor, and added, We see a growing trend that a ruling-party governor should be chosen to resolve pending issues in the region. He continued, Residents of North Jeolla are freshly reconsidering and judging that the background to candidate Kim Kwan-young's expulsion was not political oppression but cash handouts.