Opposition: "Using Sojusung and Real Estate Policy Failures as a Stepping Stone... Prioritizing Livelihood Legislation"

Kim Min-seok, Democratic Party Policy Committee Chair, Press Conference
"Proposal for 1:1 Debate with People Power Party Policy Committee Chair"
Acceptance of Positive Policies of Rhee Syngman, Park Chung-hee, and Roh Tae-woo

The Democratic Party of Korea announced that it will leverage past mistakes in income-led growth and real estate policies as a stepping stone to fully focus on livelihood legislation until next year's general election.

On the morning of the 17th, Kim Min-seok, chairman of the Democratic Party's Policy Committee, held a press conference at the National Assembly and said, "To make a leap forward as a policy-oriented party, I will present the 'Top 10 Directions for the Democratic Party Policy Renaissance,' limited to the policy field."

Kim Min-seok, Policy Committee Chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Chairman Kim said, "Based on a reflection on the existing Democratic Party policies, we will promote the 'modernization of the Democratic Party line' through on-go-ji-shin?a combination of self-critical criticism that critiques the opposing party's policies and critical integration that comprehensively evaluates the achievements and failures of past governments."

To this end, he stated, "We will take self-critical criticism that fairly evaluates past Democratic Party mistakes such as income-led growth and real estate policies as the starting point for future policy formulation," adding, "While inheriting the policy identity and positive policies of the Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun, and Moon Jae-in eras, we will also rationally and selectively adopt positive policy achievements of conservative governments, such as land reform during the Rhee Syngman era, emphasis on science and technology and autonomous national defense during the Park Chung-hee era, and the Northern Policy and the Basic Agreement on South-North Relations during the Roh Tae-woo era, to pursue policy balance."

Chairman Kim announced that he aims for a "100-year New Korea-US alliance" in line with the changing world order. He explained, "Today's Korea-US relationship cannot be the same as it was 100 years ago, 60 years ago, or 80 years ago," adding, "It reflects South Korea's demand for a win-win relationship where it can speak its mind, and furthermore, observing the trend of new US-China economic bloc formation in the international order, it proposes a bold new Korea-US cooperation relationship that strengthens the semiconductor global order reorganization."

Chairman Kim pledged to actively pursue livelihood legislation. He said, "We will continue to discover livelihood and living policies that directly affect economically vulnerable citizens across all sectors, such as a 1,000 won breakfast, easing student loan burdens, transportation support for workers in small and medium industrial complexes, and lowering loan interest rates, making these our top priority."

He continued, "In a situation where the president and the ruling party are obstructing livelihood legislation through veto power, we will activate various policy discussions to gain public support for legislation led by the Democratic Party."

He also proposed weekly public debates with the chairman of the People Power Party's Policy Committee. Chairman Kim said, "I do not mind the topic, format, or location," adding, "This will be a small step toward politics that seeks the people's judgment through one-on-one public debates." He also expressed willingness to cooperate with individual People Power Party lawmakers to realize common presidential election pledges shared by both parties.

Chairman Kim revealed plans to hold policy briefings every weekend and realize direct democracy through online policy proposal discussions involving all party members. He also plans to appoint vice chairpersons responsible for policy promotion and foreign press relations. Additionally, a 'Policy Jiphyeonjeon' advisory group composed of external experts will be formed to provide policy advice. He added that efforts will be made to strengthen autonomous legislative authority through local party branches nationwide and internal and external autonomous decentralization organizations.