Kim Jaewon: "The ruling party focuses on attacking Lee Jae-myung and the former administration... Should not dwell on the past"

Kim Jae-won, People Power Party Supreme Council Member, KBS Radio Interview
"If It Had Been an Individual Candidate Match, I Would Have Won... The Situation Was Bad"

Regarding the ruling party's significant defeat in the by-election for the mayor of Gangseo District, Seoul, Kim Jae-won, a Supreme Council member of the People Power Party, criticized the party's election strategy, saying, "Since it turned into a party-versus-party election, the candidates actually stepped back and took a backseat."

On the 13th, Kim appeared on KBS Radio's 'Choi Kyung-young's Strong Current Affairs' and said, "Jin Gyo-hoon, the Democratic Party candidate, was not well known to voters, while our candidate Kim Tae-woo was very well known," adding, "If the election had been a personal contest between individuals, our candidate would definitely have won."

Kim Jae-won, Supreme Council Member of the People Power Party.

He continued, "In the end, it would have been better if the election could have been fought on Kim Tae-woo's personal merits, but the situation was unfavorable," explaining, "The arrest warrant for Lee Jae-myung was dismissed, and this became the central issue in national politics. If the party leadership had remained silent, they would have been criticized for being too indifferent, so the leadership could not avoid getting involved, leading to a vicious cycle."

Regarding the calls for accountability from Kim Ki-hyun's leadership amid the election defeat, he said, "I believe it is much more important that we properly recognize the reality of the current situation and respond accordingly."

He added, "In fact, the presidential election was decided by a margin of 0.7 percentage points, which was very close, so there is a high possibility that we should fully consider the opposing side's demands," and said, "But didn't we proceed too unilaterally?"

He further stated, "At times like this, the ruling party should be more humble, but in reality, our party has focused solely on attacking Lee Jae-myung and making that the main issue, and also concentrated too much on the faults of the Moon Jae-in administration," adding, "We should not cling too much to issues that have already become past matters."

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