Kim Jong-in Prepares to Step In... Joining Hands with Geum Tae-seop to Support Yoon?

Comic Book Publication Ceremony on the 15th, Geum Tae-seop as Publication Chairman
Kim Jong-in and Geum Tae-seop's Close Associates Recently Joined Yoon Camp

Former Kim Jong-in, Emergency Response Committee Chairman of the People Power Party [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] ‘Kingmaker’ Kim Jong-in, former emergency committee chairman of the People Power Party, is preparing to enter the presidential election phase, marked by the publication celebration event.

According to political circles on the 1st, former emergency committee chairman Kim plans to hold a publication celebration for the comic book ‘Emergency Committee Chairman - Kim Jong-in’ on the 15th at a hotel in Seoul. The publication chairman is Geum Tae-seop, a former independent lawmaker known to be close to Kim. In a phone call that day, former lawmaker Geum said, "The publisher requested it, and I understand that former chairman Kim accepted," adding, "We occasionally have breakfast meetings."

Regarding his participation in the presidential election, former chairman Kim showed a reserved attitude, saying, "I will decide after watching the candidate acceptance speech," but it appears he has effectively decided to support former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl. In fact, several of Kim’s close aides have already joined Yoon’s campaign. Former People Power Party emergency committee member Kim Byung-min and former Vision Strategy Office chief Kim Geun-sik both come from the ‘Kim Jong-in emergency committee.’ Also, it was confirmed that a person related to former lawmaker Geum recently started working on secondment at Yoon’s campaign. It seems that former chairman Kim is connecting with Yoon’s camp through former lawmaker Geum.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Meanwhile, on the 29th of last month, former chairman Kim stated at the funeral of the late former President Roh Tae-woo, "Next year’s presidential election will probably be a competition between Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, and former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl."

Within the party, many view former chairman Kim’s appearance as imminent. Especially, there is speculation that he might appear during the primary period to support Yoon, who is facing crises such as defending former President Chun Doo-hwan and the dog apology controversy. A People Power Party official said, "We cannot rule out the possibility of him appearing at the last moment (on the 5th during the main primary)," adding, "Yoon’s campaign side would likely want such a situation."

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