Lee Won-wook: "Geum Tae-seop's New Party Has No Chance of Success"

Lee Won-wook, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, expressed a pessimistic outlook on the 'third zone' new party being promoted by former Democratic Party lawmaker Geum Tae-seop, saying it has "no chance of success."

On the 25th, in response to a listener's question on SBS's 'Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show' asking, "If former lawmaker Geum forms a new party, will you join?" Lee said, "There is no chance of success, and I have no reason to go there."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Lee stated, "I joined the Democratic Party during the 1997 presidential election and have solely protected the Democratic Party. I even consider myself the owner of the Democratic Party," adding that there are no other lawmakers within the Democratic Party who are likely to join the new party.

In political circles, it is expected that politicians from both ruling and opposition parties may join the new party around autumn, when the turmoil over next year's nominations intensifies. Former lawmaker Geum also predicted on MBC's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' the day before that "there is a possibility that this (nomination turmoil) will erupt toward the end."

However, Lee believes the possibility of Democratic Party lawmakers joining the third zone is low, citing the "solidification of the two-party system" as the reason. He said, "The two-party system is now solidified. We have attempted to establish a third party several times in Korean political history, and even someone like Ahn Cheol-soo, who has significant national and popular support, tried but ultimately failed."

The People Party, led by Ahn, merged with the People Power Party ahead of the last presidential election, which political circles interpret as the failure of Ahn's 'third zone experiment.'

Lee holds the view that the third zone cannot succeed without electoral law reform. He said, "Is there any chance for the third zone theory to succeed in the current political situation in South Korea? For it to succeed, electoral law reform must be enacted. Without a foundation that allows for a multi-party system, even if a few seats are temporarily gained, it will ultimately fail."

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