Kim Jong-in says Lee's real estate remarks cost Democratic Party the Seoul mayoral race

Kim Jong-in, former emergency committee chief of the People Power Party, cited President Lee Jae Myung's repeated public remarks on real estate as the primary reason the Democratic Party's candidate, Jung Won-oh, lost the Seoul mayoral election.

In an interview Monday on YTN Radio's "Jang Seong-cheol's News Myeongdang," Kim said the ruling party's defeat came down to one factor above all. "From the very start of the Lee Jae Myung administration, the president talked far too much about real estate issues that have produced no results whatsoever," he said. "The Han River Belt, which is most sensitive to real estate policy, pushed back against that — and that is ultimately what tipped the race toward Oh Se-hoon."

Oh, the People Power Party candidate, had trailed Jung in most polls but reversed the result in the final count, winning by 1.15 percentage points to claim an unprecedented fifth term as Seoul mayor.

Kim drew a direct line to earlier electoral history. "In the 2021 Seoul mayoral by-election held under the Moon Jae-in government, the decisive factor in Oh Se-hoon's victory was the Moon administration's failure on real estate policy," he said. "And in the last presidential election, the roughly 5-percentage-point margin by which Lee Jae Myung lost Seoul to Yoon Suk Yeol also came down to that same failure. President Lee has now committed the exact same mistake."

He added that residents of the so-called Han River Belt ultimately cast votes against Jung Won-oh because of tax concerns affecting their personal assets.

Kim went on to warn that tax policy carries serious political consequences. "The political world needs to understand that taxes, unless handled with extreme care, can trigger wide political fallout — and it has always been that way," he said. He cited two historical examples: the ruling Democratic Republican Party's narrow loss to the opposition in the 1978 10th National Assembly elections, which he attributed to public resistance to the sudden introduction of value-added tax, and former President Roh Tae-woo's failed attempt to address real estate through the "land public concept" and new taxes.

"You absolutely cannot solve real estate problems with taxes," Kim said. "Anyone who does not know that the history of taxation is the history of political revolution has no business being in politics." He added that politicians who carelessly raise the subject of taxes risk serious electoral damage, and said President Lee "must take a fresh lesson from this election and think hard about how to proceed going forward."

Asked whether Democratic Party leader Jung Chung-rae bore responsibility for the loss, Kim said it was very difficult to pin the blame on him. "Ultimately, Jung Chung-rae is also someone who is not particularly popular with Seoul residents," he said.

On potential presidential contenders within the ruling camp, Kim said Cho Kuk, leader of the Rebuilding Korea Party, would find it very hard to act alone, and that his prospects would depend on whether he merged with or was absorbed into the Democratic Party. He also noted that former Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum, who had largely retired from politics before running for Daegu mayor in this election and losing, had nonetheless shaken up the city considerably. "In that sense, if he has presidential ambitions, I think there is a possibility he could give it a try," Kim said.