Jo Eung-cheon "Lee Jae-myung running in Daegu? Lee Jun-seok's hope... Trying to shake TK"

"I Jae-myung Will Not Go to Difficult Districts... Will Not Take Risks"

Amid demands within the Democratic Party of Korea for leader Lee Jae-myung to run in a challenging district, Democratic Party lawmaker Cho Eung-cheon dismissed former People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok's speculation about Lee's possible candidacy in Daegu as "just his (Lee Jun-seok's) wishful thinking."

On the 9th, Cho said on CBS's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show,' "To assert his presence and influence more, he needs to keep shaking up the TK region. I think he even mentioned his own Yeongnam new party yesterday," referring to Lee Jun-seok.

On the 26th, Cho Eung-cheon, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, attended the "Democratic Party Reflection and Innovation Continuous Forum" held at the National Assembly and presented on the topic "Reflection and Lessons from Five and a Half Years of Democratic Party Governance." Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

On the 1st, former leader Lee Jun-seok emphasized the image of "leading from the front with a gun" on CBS radio and predicted that Lee Jae-myung "might declare his candidacy in Daegu for next year's general election."

However, lawmaker Cho pointed out that former leader Lee made such predictions solely for his own benefit. He said, "Not only him, but even within the Democratic Party, there are many people willing to go there, among those from TK. And if you look closely, Lee Jae-myung is also from TK. If they unite tightly there, the fat cats are dead meat. They keep trying to shake us up and just drag us into this, but it means nothing."

Cho predicted that the possibility of Lee Jae-myung running in a challenging district is very low. He said, "If he had the courage to run in a tough district and the willingness for such sacrifice and dedication, he would have gone to Bundang last year instead of Incheon Gyeyang. He would have faced off against People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo there."

He continued, "At that time, there was a by-election in Bundang where he lived. But even though he was a former governor of Gyeonggi Province and there was a by-election in his own area, he didn't run there and went to Incheon instead."

He added, "Back then, there was so much opposition telling him not to run. Anyway, don't run in the by-election. Even if you run, not here. Then they drafted Song Young-gil as the Seoul mayoral candidate and left that seat vacant. (Lee Jae-myung) is not the type to take risks," he said.