Kim Dong-yeon, Governor of Gyeonggi Province, expressed his desire to become the heir to the "Roh Moo-hyun legacy." He also indirectly criticized writer Yoo Si-min's recent remark calling his actions "ingratitude," saying, "Since I won the fierce Gyeonggi Province governor election, it was a form of repayment." Furthermore, he asserted that if the Democratic Party loses to the People Power Party, which he described as a pro-coup force, in the upcoming early presidential election, the Democratic Party should immediately shut its doors.
On the 17th, in an interview with JTBC YouTube channel 'Genre Only Yeouido,' Governor Kim said, "I want to be the person who inherits President Roh Moo-hyun's debts. I have actually thought about becoming such a politician for a long time," adding, "I believe President Roh's debts are twofold. One is the implementation of the 'Vision 2030 Korea Long-term National Development Plan' that I helped create during Roh's presidency. In fact, it was shelved and not realized at that time."
He continued, "The Vision 2030 report, based on 2005 standards, outlined Korea's future vision as a welfare state, with two major pillars for building that welfare state: institutional reform and pre-investment, along with five major pillars and 50 policies," and added, "As soon as the report was released, the opposition party at the time used it as a political battleground, causing it to be shelved."
Governor Kim said, "So the first debt of President Roh that I want to inherit is the execution of Vision 2030, and the second, which might be even more important, is constitutional amendment," recalling, "President Roh talked about constitutional amendment back then."
He went on, "Now, the 7th Republic must be established to change the 1987 system. The 7th Republic is not just about regime change; regime change alone is insufficient to overturn the current coup and martial law," diagnosing, "The 1987 system's biggest flaw is the imperial presidency. Various problems stemmed from that, eventually leading to events like martial law and coup attempts."
Regarding Yoo Si-min's accusation of ingratitude, Governor Kim said, "I have no particular stance. There's no need to respond to every comment like that. But one thing is clear," asserting, "If I had lost the election, it might have been ingratitude, but since I won, it was repayment."
He emphasized, "In that difficult election, I won by a margin of 8,913 votes out of 14 million people in Gyeonggi Province," and added, "Moreover, I was trailing for over 10 hours and overturned the result around 5:30 a.m. I was the only one to win in the metropolitan area among the 17 metropolitan mayoral elections, excluding three Honam regions and Jeju Island."
On the possibility of the Democratic Party losing to the People Power Party in the early presidential election, he said, "Currently, in the Guro District mayoral by-election, there are talks that they won't field a candidate," and questioned, "They shouldn't field a candidate as it is. How could a party associated with martial law and coup attempts field a candidate?"
However, he added, "Since the presidency is different, someone from the People Power Party has to run," and argued, "If, regardless of personal evaluations, a candidate from such a party wins, it would be a regression in Korea's history and democracy, and the Democratic Party should shut its doors."
Meanwhile, it was confirmed that Governor Kim had dinner with former leader Cho Kuk of the Innovation Party on December 3rd last year, the day of the martial law incident.
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