Rep. Park Jie-won of the Democratic Party of Korea called it a "blunder" for candidate Kim Min-seok to raise allegations of involvement by Shincheonji in the party's convention, saying, "You should not take candidate Jung Chung-rae lightly." However, he predicted that Kim would ultimately be more likely to win the party leadership.
Kim Min-seok is running for party leader in the Aug. 17 national convention.
Park made the remarks on the 30th during an appearance on YTN Radio's "Jang Sung-chul's News Myeongdang," saying, "If he makes a mistake, candidate Kim could become a second Park Chan-dae." Referring to Park Chan-dae, who lost the party leader race at last August's convention, he explained, "More than 170 Democratic Party lawmakers, including myself, supported Park Chan-dae, but the result was Jung Chung-rae."
He added, "Candidate Jung's emotional approach is succeeding," and noted, "Candidate Kim, who received overwhelming support in the first candidate debate, should have been careful, but he was aggressive."
Park also said, "Because (candidate Kim) raised the Shincheonji issue, it turned into a mudslinging fight." He noted, "Fortunately, ahead of the Chungcheong vote, candidate Kim met with the North Chungcheong governor, the Sejong mayor, the Daejeon mayor, and the South Chungcheong governor to discuss policies for regional development."
He continued, "He should have made the 'moving toward the future' message earlier," and assessed, "It's belated, but because he has gone that way even now, I think he is doing well."
However, when asked "who is more likely to win," he answered, "It's difficult for me to say, but I still think it's candidate Kim, don't you?"
