With about 40 days left until the Democratic Party of Korea party convention on Aug. 17, the race for supreme council seats is also heating up. Like the party leader election, observers expect the supreme council race to unfold as a showdown between the "pro-Lee Jae-myung" camp and the "pro-Jung Chung-rae" camp. While figures aligned with Lee are declaring their candidacies one after another both inside and outside the Assembly, those aligned with Jung have yet to cut the ribbon on their bids.
Among the candidates for supreme council, the first to open fire was Rep. Park Sun-won. Park held a news conference at the National Assembly on the 24th of last month and was the first to run for the supreme council. Next, runs from the pro-Lee camp stand out. Rep. Lee Geon-tae, a former defense attorney for Lee Jae-myung in the Daejang-dong development scandal, will hold a news conference at the National Assembly on the 7th, saying he will "move from being Lee Jae-myung's shield to the foremost striker for a successful administration," and is set to formalize his bid. Reps. Park Sung-joon and Chung Jin-uk are also being mentioned as potential candidates.
Moves by pro-Lee figures outside the Assembly are also gaining steam. Kim Yong, former deputy head of the Institute for Democracy and known as a close aide to the president, will hold a news conference at the National Assembly on the 8th to announce a run for the supreme council. Kim sought a strategic nomination in the by-elections held alongside the June 3 local elections but was excluded from the slate. Kim Hyung-nam, former standing co-chair of the election committee for Chong Won-o's Seoul mayoral campaign, threw his hat in the ring and voiced criticism of leader Jung Chung-rae, saying, "All reform agendas start with the president and are stopping in front of the Democratic Party leadership."
By contrast, the pro-Jung camp so far has no officially registered candidates. There is talk that Reps. Han Min-su and Choi Min-hee may run, and there is also the possibility that current supreme council members Moon Jeong-bok and Lee Seong-yoon will try again. However, none of them has declared a run yet.
Regarding the relatively slower moves by the pro-Jung camp, a political source said, "With the showdown between the pro-Lee and pro-Jung camps now official, it is not a bad strategy for the pro-Jung side to watch the situation and lean into a weaker-side frame rather than respond aggressively," adding, "There is a mood of carefully gauging the convention landscape and the party's internal currents while calibrating the timing of their response."
Rep. Kim Young-ho, seen as relatively less factional, declared his candidacy on the 25th of last month, saying, "I will firmly realign the center of gravity that supports the party's backbone and become the vanguard of unity that brings together a party sentiment that has been torn and wounded." Rep. Seo Mi-hwa also signaled a candidacy declaration on the 9th.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party will accept registrations for party leader and supreme council candidates on the 16th and 17th. The provincial tour primaries will then proceed starting on the 1st of next month in South Chungcheong, North Chungcheong, Daejeon and Sejong, followed by Busan, Ulsan and South Gyeongsang on the 2nd; Jeju and Incheon on the 8th; Gangwon, Daegu and North Gyeongsang on the 9th; Gwangju, South Jeolla and North Jeolla on the 15th; and Seoul and Gyeonggi on the 16th.