Democratic Party leadership hopefuls fan out across Honam, Chungcheong in first campaign weekend

The five candidates vying to lead the Democratic Party of Korea fanned out across the country Saturday — the first weekend since candidate registration closed for the Aug. 17 national convention — as they launched their campaigns in earnest.

The contenders — Kim Min-seok, Ko Min-jung, Jung Chung-rae, Kim Bo-mi and Song Young-gil, listed in ballot order — pursued votes across the Honam region, the biggest battleground, as well as Chungcheong and Yeongnam.

Kim focused his day on Daejeon, visiting local party committees in Jung-gu, Dong-gu and Seo-gu before paying his respects at the grave of the late Marine Cpl. Chae at Daejeon National Cemetery. At a party member rally, Kim said the convention's most important task was "to elect a leadership that will steadfastly support President Lee Jae Myung's remaining four years in office," presenting himself as the right person to ensure the Lee government's success. On concerns about factional tensions within the party, he said he was confident that "once the process runs its course, we will come together stronger than before."

Jung split his day between a party member rally in Buk-gu, Gwangju, and one in Mapo-gu, Seoul — his own constituency — targeting both Honam and the greater Seoul area simultaneously. He highlighted his record of introducing a one-member, one-vote system during his tenure as party leader and said he would "push through the full abolition of supplementary investigation rights." Jung also took to social media to appeal for support, writing that he would "protect the Democratic Party" and asking members to "protect Jung Chung-rae in return" — framing himself as an underdog facing pressure from the pro-Lee faction.

Song visited Seonunsa Temple in Gochang, North Jeolla Province, to meet with the head monk before traveling to Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, for a town hall meeting with party members. In Changwon, he had lunch with former South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyung-soo to discuss development strategies for the Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam region and ways to address the underrepresentation of Yeongnam under the one-member, one-vote system. At the town hall, Song sharply criticized internal party procedures over a past dispute about his eligibility to run, saying the party had tried to bar him — a candidate acquitted after what he called an unlawful investigation — over the length of his membership dues payment.

Candidates for the supreme council also joined the Honam push. Ko, on a four-day trip to the region, held a youth forum in Muan, South Jeolla Province, and pledged to "end the politics of invoking youth only at election time and become a wick that connects the generations." Kim Bo-mi held a press conference at the Jeonnam-Gwangju integrated special metropolitan council and rebuffed attacks linking her to the Lee Nak-yon faction based on an old photograph, calling it "informant politics — judging someone's faction by a single photo" in a social media post.