Kim Jaewon: "It's Not Good for Jo Jeonghun to Promote Himself as the 'First Talent Recruit'"

"Jo Jeonghun Started with Proportional Representation and Then Left the Party"
"Mapo Gap, Two Incumbents Apply... Party Conflict if Special Recruitment Consideration is Given"

Regarding the evaluation that the People Power Party's recruitment of Assemblyman Cho Jeong-hoon of the Sidaejeonhan party ahead of next year's general election is considered Party Leader Kim Ki-hyun's 'No. 1 talent recruitment,' Kim Jae-won, a Supreme Council member of the People Power Party, pointed out that "it is not good to promote it as the No. 1 talent recruitment."

On the 20th, Kim, on YTN's 'News King Park Ji-hoon,' said, "It would be good if this becomes an opportunity to recruit more diverse and many talents in the future, but promoting it as the 'No. 1 recruitment' is not that good."

Kim Jae-won, Supreme Council Member of the People Power Party, is heading to the funeral hall of Yoon Ki-joong, honorary professor at Yonsei University and father of President Yoon Seok-yeol, set up at Sinchon Severance Hospital in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul on the afternoon of the 16th.
Photo by Joint Press Corps

This is because Assemblyman Cho has changed his party affiliation four times by repeatedly joining and leaving parties. Kim said, "The image Assemblyman Cho has shown is that, as a young politician, he started with a proportional representation party, which was one of the alternative parties we criticized the most at the time. He came by mixing several parties like that and then left the party again," adding, "So there has been a lot of criticism about what his political conviction really is."

The recruitment of Assemblyman Cho seems to be part of absorbing centrist votes. However, Kim advised, "Our party seems to be trying to show a somewhat newer image or to bring in people who were in a neutral zone," and added, "But trying to attract votes from the centrist regions through so-called centrist integration is not very effective."

Kim has previously emphasized that the 'centrist group is an illusion.' He said, "People who have not properly experienced frontline politics look at opinion polls and say conservatives 30%, progressives 30%, centrists 40%, so let's attract that 40%," and added, "I think the logic of centrist expansion itself is wrong, and whenever we go that way, we end up losing elections."

He also cited the recent rise in the Democratic Party's approval ratings as an example. Kim said, "Recently, the Democratic Party's approval rating has risen by about 10%. Then, some analyze that the party leader's hunger strike to avoid going to prison caused the rise in the Democratic Party's approval rating," and added, "But did the Democratic Party's approval rating rise because of a centrist approach? No, it did not."

Assemblyman Cho has decided to run in Mapo-gap, Seoul. However, Kim said, "Many people in our party are confident about the Mapo-gap area, and there are even two incumbent assembly members probably applying for the party committee chair there," and added, "If we consider special treatment for talent recruitment in such an area, it will cause conflicts within the party. Even if it is talent recruitment, if we exclude too many talents within the party, side effects will occur."