At the Party Headquarters 'In Front of the National Assembly,' Party Name and Color Changed... The United Party Is Transforming

Kim Jong-in, Renewed from Core to Brand... At the Level of Reestablishing the Party

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyemin] Under the leadership of Emergency Response Committee Chairman Kim Jong-in, the United Future Party is undergoing a transformation equivalent to a re-founding. The party is changing its core framework, including its platform and policies, relocating its headquarters, and even altering its name and party colors. The direction of this reorganization aims for expansiveness that embraces centrists and non-partisan voters. The plan is to complete all tasks before the regular National Assembly session in September, with the key question being whether this can be finalized without internal party conflicts.

The United Future Party began its reform efforts by announcing a draft of its party platform on the 20th. Chairman Kim has emphasized that the party’s philosophy, starting with the platform, must be changed before altering the party’s name or other symbols. At a discussion hosted by the Gwanhun Club on the 14th, he stated, "We will change even the framework to be reborn as a new party," adding, "The goal of this innovation is to lay the foundation for a ruling party that can continue for a hundred years."

The party headquarters will also be moved back in front of the National Assembly. After the 2018 local election defeat during the Liberty Korea Party era, the party relocated its headquarters from Yeouido to Yeongdeungpo to alleviate financial pressures. Since most political parties typically establish their headquarters near the National Assembly, this move was symbolically seen as reflecting the party’s weakened status. The United Future Party’s decision to return its headquarters to the National Assembly after two years is also interpreted as a signal to both internal and external audiences that the party has returned to normalcy. A party official explained, "This is to consolidate the scattered party organization into one, improve work efficiency, and prepare for the presidential election."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

In line with this, the party is actively working on changing its name and party colors. The new name will be concise but will reflect the spirit of the new platform, which embraces centrists and non-partisan voters. Chairman Kim has entrusted the renaming process entirely to Public Relations Director Kim Soo-min, requesting a party name that is easy and friendly for the public to approach. Abstract words like "united" are likely to be excluded, as well as ideologically charged terms such as "conservative" or "liberal."

Significant changes in party colors are also expected. Since the new platform begins with the phrase "Tomorrow for Everyone," it is reported that the party may incorporate more than one color. A party official said, "Like the flag of the U.S. Republican Party, how the colors are arranged will be more important than the colors themselves," adding, "There might be a surprising outcome."

The United Future Party plans to complete the revision of the platform and policies, as well as the procedures for changing the party name and colors, by mid-August. Since the Democratic Party of Korea will elect new leadership at the end of August, the intention is for both parties to present their new images side by side at the September regular National Assembly session.

However, the possibility of internal opposition during this replacement process cannot be ruled out. The party has experienced difficulties each time it changed its name, and especially this time, as the conservative tone is expected to soften, there may be resistance centered around hardline conservatives within the party.

The draft of the new platform has received evaluations from both inside and outside the political sphere as "balanced for a public party," but some view it as a "leftward shift." The platform reintroduces the term "democratization," which had disappeared through the Liberty Korea Party and United Future Party eras. Alongside the spirit of industrialization represented by the Saemaul Movement, it newly establishes the party’s historical perspective by pledging to inherit the spirit of democratization, including the May 18 Democratic Uprising. Furthermore, rather than emphasizing conservative and market economy colors, the party has added responsibilities toward labor and socially vulnerable groups, which had been neglected by the United Future Party until now.

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