Democratic Party leadership contenders former party leader Jung Chung-rae and former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok visited the May Mothers' House in Gwangju and SK hynix in Cheongju, respectively. Jung, who draws support from hardline party members, emphasized his ideological clarity by meeting bereaved families of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement in Gwangju, a Democratic Party stronghold, while Kim visited SK hynix and pledged support for the Lee Jae-myung administration's mega project.
After visiting the May Mothers' House in Gwangju on Wednesday, Jung wrote on Facebook, "I visited the May Mothers' House, where the May mothers who carry the pain of Gwangju's May 18 throughout their bodies reside."
He continued, "As someone who came to Gwangju in 1986 as a university newspaper reporter to cover the May 18 uprising, learned the truth of May 18, and became a student activist, May 18 is a turning point in my life," adding, "I had many conversations with May 18 victims and those involved."
Jung's visit to the Honam region was his second consecutive day there, following North Jeolla Province the previous day. He also attended the inauguration ceremony of North Jeolla Governor Lee Won-taek on Tuesday. Honam is a region where 35% of the eligible party members holding voting rights in the party convention are concentrated. In North Jeolla, targeting the semiconductor investment briefing for Gwangju and South Jeolla chaired by President Lee, he appealed to North Jeolla voters, saying, "North Jeolla residents were expressing feelings of loss and alienation, and I will do my best so that they do not feel that way."
By contrast, Kim visited SK hynix's Campus 4 in Cheongju that day. Kim pledged party and government support for the mega project to which SK hynix and Samsung Electronics have committed investment. "I believe the mega project is the No. 1 among the important state affairs remaining over the next four years from the perspective of the Lee Jae-myung administration," he said. "I came to express the view that the party and the National Assembly must make supporting and succeeding in this mega project their top priority." He added, "I believe the party leader and the entire party leadership must make supporting this work with all their strength the No. 1 task."
Kim's visit to SK hynix is analyzed as a move to differentiate himself from Jung, who is inducing a competition over ideological clarity by raising issues such as supplementary investigative authority. Rep. Lee Yong-woo, who is assisting Kim, explained, "As a former prime minister, he visited SK hynix in the sense that if he becomes party leader, he will focus on our country's economic growth." Another official from Kim's camp said, "Kim will show a winning Democratic Party, a victorious Democratic Party, through the party convention," adding, "This is the point of differentiation from Jung, who is based on hardline supporters."
Meanwhile, at the Party Convention Preparatory Committee held that day, a war of nerves broke out between Jung's and Kim's camps over the schedule for the regional primaries. This was because the first primary region decided by the preparatory committee was Chungcheong, Jung's home region, and the Honam primary, where Kim's support is assessed to have risen, was placed in the latter part of the convention race. Kim's camp is known to be poised to strongly demand changes to the future schedule, given that this schedule must also pass resolutions by the Supreme Council and the Party Affairs Committee.
At the preparatory committee that day, the regional and age-based weighting requested by Kim and Rep. Song Young-gil's side was not discussed. The two leadership contenders raised concerns about the one-person-one-vote system pushed by Jung and argued for the need for supplementary measures, but the discussion was reportedly postponed out of concern over controversy.
