Choi Jae-sung "8 Years Ago, Innovation Committee Faced Anti-Moon Backlash... Must Have Impact Like Then"

Choi Jae-sung, KBS Radio Interview
"Approval Ratings Recover with Full Authority Kim Sang-gon's Innovation Plan"

Choi Jae-sung, former Senior Secretary for Political Affairs at the Blue House, evaluated the newly launched Democratic Party of Korea Innovation Committee on the 19th, saying, "So far, it has not given an impactful signal that it can successfully innovate."

Choi appeared on KBS Radio's 'Choi Kyung-young's Strong Current Affairs' on the same day and said, "We need to pay attention to what kind of innovation plan the Innovation Committee, led by Kim Eun-kyung, will use to overcome the crisis in the future," but added, "So far, there are mixed evaluations. We need to watch a little longer."

Choi emphasized, "Currently, since Lee Raekyung, Honorary Chairman of Another Hundred Years, was once appointed as the Innovation Committee Chair but resigned, the committee is somewhat lacking in momentum, and evaluations differ between pro-Myeong (pro-Lee Jae-myung) and anti-Myeong (anti-Lee Jae-myung) factions. Therefore, there needs to be impact."

Professor Kim Eun-kyung of the Department of Law at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, appointed as the Innovation Committee Chairperson of the Democratic Party of Korea. Photo by Huh Young-han younghan@

He then referred to the case in 2015 when Moon Jae-in, then leader of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, launched the 'Kim Sang-gon Innovation Committee.' After the Democratic Party suffered a crushing defeat in the April 29 by-elections that year, calls for the party leader's responsibility arose, and Moon appointed former Deputy Minister of Education Kim Sang-gon as the chair of the Innovation Committee.

At that time, the Kim Sang-gon Innovation Committee introduced an evaluation system for elected officials such as members of the National Assembly and pushed for innovation plans that included revising party rules to prohibit the party from nominating candidates in by-elections triggered by serious misconduct of elected officials.

Choi explained, "When Kim came as the Innovation Committee Chair, the anti-Moon faction within the Democratic Party attacked the committee. They strongly criticized the proposal to exclude the bottom 20% of lawmakers from nominations based on evaluations and eventually left the party."

He continued, "At that time, Moon, then party leader, did not interfere, and Kim Sang-gon had full authority over the committee's composition and presented a decent innovation plan. So, although the Democratic Party experienced a split, it helped overcome the situation and recover its approval ratings."

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