Kim Young-woo: "Hong Joon-pyo Cutoff Was to Uphold the Committee's Principles... Focus Should Be on Reform Nomination"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Kim Young-woo, a member of the United Future Party, stated that the nomination committee’s decision to cut off former Liberty Korea Party leader Hong Joon-pyo from the candidate list was due to the committee trying to adhere to principles, and he urged a focus on reform nominations.

In an interview with tbs's 'Kim Eo-jun's News Factory' on the 6th, Kim said, "It seems there was some power struggle between Kim Hyung-oh, the chairman of the nomination committee, and these presidential hopefuls," referring to the situation. On the 5th, Chairman Kim announced the results of the primary elections in the Busan-Gyeongnam (PK) region, which included cutting off former leader Hong and former Gyeongnam Governor Kim Tae-ho.

Kim explained, "When Chairman Kim personally went down to meet former leader Hong and former Governor Kim, it should be seen as him showing that the nomination committee would follow the principles it set," adding, "It was to build justification, and the basic stance of the committee is that candidates who previously held responsible positions in the party should take on roles in difficult constituencies, but since that was not accepted, they just followed the principles."

Kim added, "If the committee didn’t follow the principles this time, there could have been a lot of criticism from many other candidates who were also eliminated in the nominations, so it seems they just stuck to the principles," and "Since it’s a game of truth, we don’t know exactly what was said back and forth."

Regarding the so-called 'strategic nomination' in Busan Jung and Yeongdo districts, where Hwang Bo-seung-hee, a former Busan city council member and former secretary to Chairman Kim during his time as a lawmaker, ran in the primary, Kim said, "Chairman Kim is a five-term lawmaker with 20 years of parliamentary experience, so he must have worked with many politicians and had many aides. If you exclude all of them here and there, that could be reverse discrimination."

On the suspicion that those close to Chairman Kim were nominated while former leader Hong received harsh treatment, Kim said, "From the perspective of those who were not nominated, there must be many reasons to feel very unfair," and added, "In this situation, rather than taking sides, we should focus on whether the United Future Party is conducting nominations and reform nominations overall."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Regarding former President Park Geun-hye’s handwritten letter from prison, Kim said, "It’s somewhat fortunate," explaining, "If there had been other messages, it might have caused more controversy, but this message simply asks for unity centered on the major opposition party." Addressing concerns that the moderate voters might turn away, he said, "Just because this letter came out doesn’t necessarily mean that will happen; it depends on how the United Future Party and conservatives interpret and use it positively," and added, "Whether former President Park sent the message or not, I don’t think it will have a very big impact."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.