With the June 3 local elections and parliamentary by-elections just over 10 days away, the floor leaders of South Korea's ruling and opposition parties are intensifying efforts to win voter support through contrasting strategies. Han Byung-do, the recently re-elected floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is pushing legislative support to back candidates' campaign pledges, while Song Eon-seok of the People Power Party, whose term ends next month, is ramping up attacks by promoting a referendum on the Lee Jae-myung administration.
According to political sources on the 15th, Han has been pledging swift legislation to address regional development and pending issues across the country, throwing his weight behind election support. Elected on the 6th of this month as the Democratic Party's first-ever consecutive-term floor leader, he oversees the party's parliamentary strategy in the second half of the National Assembly's term. The move is interpreted as a strategy to win votes by closely linking the party's plan to accelerate livelihood legislation after the elections with each candidate's campaign pledges.
In fact, at the "On-Site Meeting on Support for North Jeolla and Saemangeum Projects" held at the Saemangeum 33 Center in Gimje, North Jeolla Province on the 13th, Han said, "We are currently pursuing a third revision of the North Jeolla Special Act, which includes essential special provisions related to Hyundai Motor's Saemangeum investment, such as solar power, robotics and physical AI." He pledged, "As floor leader, I am the chief commander on legislative matters, so I will provide support so that Hyundai Motor can invest with confidence."
His visit to North Jeolla came just two days after another trip on the 11th. He has been concentrating his efforts there as the strong showing of independent candidate Kim Kwan-young, a former North Jeolla governor, in the gubernatorial race has put the party's traditional stronghold at risk. Beyond the North Jeolla Special Act revision, key legislative tasks include amending the Saemangeum Project Act to exempt the project from preliminary feasibility studies, and enacting a renewable energy self-sufficient city law to designate Saemangeum as a leading RE100 industrial complex.
On the 8th, he visited Hanam (District A) in Gyeonggi Province, a parliamentary by-election district, where he pledged to establish a "Task Force for Legislative Support on Regional Pending Issues" under the direct authority of the floor leader. It was his first on-site activity since his re-election as floor leader. Lee Kwang-jae, the Democratic Party candidate running there, handed Han a legislative support proposal related to Hanam's seven major pending issues, including transportation network expansion, improvement of the development restriction zone system, utilization of state and public land, revitalization of the original downtown, and expansion of education and administrative infrastructure. The proposal included 21 legislative items, two budget tasks, and four administrative and other tasks.
In contrast, Song, whose term ends on June 17, is fueling a referendum on the Lee Jae-myung administration and ruling party while appealing for voter support. He is particularly focused on rallying conservatives around issues such as the proposed "AI National Dividend System."
In a post on his social media on the 14th, Song said, "President Lee Jae-myung has recently been repeating the sophistry of 'populist austerity finance.'" He added, "From the campaign, he distorted the market with pseudo-economic theories like hotel economics, and now he is twisting even the principle of fiscal soundness, turning it into a target of propaganda."
He continued, "The IMF, OECD and global credit rating agencies are all concerned about the rapid pace of South Korea's national debt growth. At a time when they are warning that astronomical national debt will become a key risk over the medium and long term, calling the emphasis on fiscal soundness 'populist austerity' shows a failure to grasp even the basics of national fiscal management."
He also pointed out, "Policy Office Director Kim Yong-beom's so-called national dividend idea is in the same vein. It cleverly mixes excess tax revenues with corporate excess profits, treating the achievements of semiconductor companies as if they were resources the government could distribute."
