Yang Yi-won Young "Cannot Understand Leaving Full Authority to Innovation Committee to Leadership"

"Blocking Party Members' Communication Channels Leads to More Radicalization"
"Centrist Voters Will Choose Leadership Over Morality"

Within the Democratic Party of Korea, as the pro-Myeong (친명) and non-Myeong (비명) factions clash over the direction of innovation, voices from the non-Myeong faction are calling for the leadership to delegate full authority to the Innovation Committee. In response, pro-Myeong lawmaker Yang Yi-won-young dismissed this, saying, "I cannot understand it."

On the 24th, Yang Yi-won-young stated on CBS's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show,' "The party leadership has its role, and the Innovation Committee has its role in innovation," emphasizing this point.

Candidate Yang I-won-young, who ran for the party's Supreme Council member, is presenting her policy speech at the preliminary primary election for the selection of the Democratic Party's party leader and Supreme Council members held at the National Assembly Members' Office Building on the 28th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

The day before, Democratic Party lawmaker Yoon Gun-young raised his voice on his social media, urging the party leadership to "completely relinquish everything for comprehensive innovation" and to delegate full authority to the new innovation body (Innovation Committee). However, Yang Yi-won-young said, "I think the role of the Innovation Committee is necessary," but expressed that she cannot understand the idea of full delegation of authority.

She said, "Until now, the party leader has focused on unity, but this time we have confirmed that there are various problems within our party. Therefore, I believe it is necessary to actively focus on the Innovation Committee, which emphasizes party innovation and reform."

Regarding demands from the non-Myeong faction to "break ties with hardline fandoms," she took a negative stance, saying, "The public consists of diverse people, and party members are also diverse. But just because some members actively express certain positions, is there a need to deny the existence of groups with particular views?"

She added, "Of course, if there are abusive or excessive expressions, that is naturally a personal issue, right? In such cases, measures like expulsion, as done this time, should be taken. But rather, because we have blocked the communication channels of party members, expressions have become more extreme. In fact, our party members point out that the Democratic Party is less democratic than the People Power Party, and from what I see, that is true."

The "restriction of communication channels" refers to the delegate system. Yang Yi-won-young emphasized the need to abolish the delegate system, saying, "For example, in the People Power Party, President Yoon Seok-youl has one vote, and individual party members also have one vote. We do not operate like that, do we?"

Within the non-Myeong faction, there are concerns that abolishing the delegate system would limit expansion of the party's base due to a disconnect with public sentiment. Yang Yi-won-young said, "I am curious about what the real public sentiment is. Party members are those who agree with the values of the Democratic Party and support us. As for the public sentiment, one-third are People Power Party supporters, one-third are party members, and one-third are indifferent or swing voters. If you combine all these, there are people who strongly dislike the Democratic Party. Is that really public sentiment?"

Regarding the centrist voters, she said, "The center will vote for whoever demonstrates the ability to properly lead the Republic of Korea and shows strong leadership." She continued, "There was also talk about morality, but the role of politics is to show who can better feed our people, protect them safely, play a proper role on the international stage, and enable companies to operate well by demonstrating that capability."