Kim Min-seok says Jung's merger push 'makes it considerably harder'

Democratic Party of Korea leader Kim Min-seok pushed back Tuesday against lawmaker Jung Chung-rae's call for the party to merge with the Rebuilding Korea Party by January next year, saying Jung had raised the issue "not as a sincere effort toward good-faith integration, but as a kind of tool for intraparty struggle." Kim added that if Jung "genuinely intends to merge in January, going about it that way will make things considerably harder."

Kim made the remarks in an appearance on the Democratic Party's YouTube channel "Minty 07," saying, "A party merger or dissolution is the most member-sovereign decision there is — it requires the most concentrated expression of the membership's collective will." Kim also said that "the distribution of members' views matters, and so do the process and procedures."

Jung had appeared on the YouTube channel "Park Si-young TV" on Saturday, saying, "If we think about the general election, shouldn't we give at least six months for those who came from the Rebuilding Korea Party to recruit full members?" Jung said the merger should be "completed as early as possible, and no later than January." Earlier this year, while serving as party leader, Jung had abruptly announced merger talks with the Rebuilding Korea Party, only for the effort to collapse amid internal opposition.

Kim said the failure of the merger talks during Jung's tenure as leader was "fundamentally due to the fact that it was handled as a unilateral declaration, separate from any process of confirming and gathering members' views — the process and procedures were ignored, and that is what derailed it."

Kim went on to say that "many people seem to think that suddenly setting a deadline like this, at a time when there is already an intraparty system and designated personnel discussing how far we can cooperate with the Rebuilding Korea Party — including on policy coordination — will not actually be helpful."

Rep. Park Beom-gye, head of the Democratic Party's Grand Unification Promotion Committee, said Monday in an MBC Radio appearance that there was "time to spare until around next summer" for a merger with the Rebuilding Korea Party. Rep. Lee Hae-sik, who leads the committee's Rebuilding Korea Party cooperation subcommittee, also wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday: "If you suddenly set a deadline like a prophet, would that help or hinder the merger effort?"

Kim said the party had been "continuously gauging members' views," noting that "the distribution of members' opinions has gone through various developments since the last merger controversy, and it is true that the current environment is considerably more difficult than it was then." Kim said the situation was one where "we cannot presuppose a merger outright, and even less can we presuppose a timeline."

Kim also said that "setting a fixed line and tying other intraparty schedules to it is something that, in practice, would not help even those who want it to happen." Kim added that it "would have been better" if Jung, who "has long emphasized member sovereignty, had raised the issue while respecting the process and procedures of consulting members' views."