Han Byung-do: "Ruling Party with No Results from 'Running in Difficult Districts'... Our Party Has Four"

Democratic Party Lawmaker, SBS Radio Interview
"Ruling Party's Issue-Making? No Results, Will Ultimately Backfire"

Han Byung-do, the chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee of the Democratic Party of Korea, said on the 17th regarding the 'running in difficult districts' issue raised in the political circles of both ruling and opposition parties, "In our party, there are already four people who have decided not to run, while in the People Power Party, there are none yet," adding, "If we evaluate based on the current situation, they say they will do so in the future, but no results are coming out."

This statement is interpreted as implying that the Democratic Party is achieving better results in the innovation competition than the People Power Party, which first raised the 'senior lawmakers running in difficult districts' issue. Currently, in the Democratic Party, six-term lawmaker Park Byeong-seok, who served as the Speaker of the National Assembly, along with Kang Min-jung, Oh Young-hwan, and Woo Sang-ho, have announced their intention not to run in next year's general election.

Han appeared on SBS Radio's 'Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show' on the same day and said, "It is already underway in our party, and such situations will definitely arise again within our party during the general election process."

Han Byung-do, member of the Democratic Party of Korea. [Image source=Yonhap News]

He also disagreed with the assessment that the Democratic Party is falling behind in the competition over general election issues such as the 'incorporation of Gimpo City into Seoul' following the by-election for the Gangseo District Office. Han said, "It is absolutely not quiet. We won the Gangseo election and do not think we are complacent or have secured victory," adding, "It was rather another election that raised awareness within our party that we need to work even harder."

Han said, "At first glance, it may seem like the ruling party has been driving the issue for about two weeks," but warned, "Although it looks like they are driving the issue, they have not prepared the content or put it into practice, which will inevitably lead to a backlash."

He continued, "For example, the main core issue of the issue-driving was the story about the non-candidacy of Yoon Hae-gwan (key associates of President Yoon Seok-yeol), but all the parties involved deny it," and "Also, although the incorporation of Gimpo City into Seoul was proposed, local government heads affiliated with the People Power Party oppose it. These things do not yield results," he evaluated dismissively.

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