'Cutoff' Ki Dong-min declares stay... "I will protect the Democratic Party"

"Political Prosecution Fabrication and Blind Following... Political Life Destroyed"
"Democratic Party's Purpose Questioned: Is It to Judge the Prosecutorial Regime?"

Ki Dong-min, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, declared his intention to remain in the party despite deeming the party's decision to exclude him from the nomination as unfair, stating, "I will stand with the party under any circumstances."

On the morning of the 5th, Ki held a press conference at the National Assembly Communication Office and said, "I will trust the people and party members and protect the Democratic Party until the end," adding, "Although I am unable to run in this parliamentary election due to the party's unfair decision, I acknowledge that my strength and ability were insufficient." He served two terms representing Seongbuk-gu Eul in Seoul, but the party's nomination management committee transferred his constituency to the Strategic Nomination Committee on the 28th of last month, citing allegations of bribery against Ki. Subsequently, the Strategic Nomination Committee excluded Ki and nominated lawyer Kim Nam-geun as a recruited talent.

Ki Dong-min, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, is holding a press conference regarding nominations at the National Assembly Communication Office on the 29th. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Ki emphasized, "I will now focus on responding faithfully to the trial and will definitely prove my innocence and return," adding, "I will never leave Seongbuk, which is both the beginning and the end of my political career."

He repeatedly stated that the allegations that worked against him during the nomination process were unfair. He criticized, "The Nomination Management Committee deprived me of my political fate for an unacceptable reason," and "The party's highest decision-making body, the Party Affairs Committee, defined the prosecution's indictment against me as political oppression, just like Representative Lee Jae-myung and Representative Lee Su-jin." He further claimed, "Legally, I sufficiently explained that the incident occurred before the 'Kim Young-ran Act' was enforced, but those who were determined to exclude me blindly followed the fabricated claims of the political prosecution."

Regarding the Nomination Committee, he pointed out, "It has degenerated into a tool representing the interests of a specific faction," and "Our party, which criticized political retaliation and opposition suppression, used the prosecution's fabricated claims as grounds for nomination exclusion, thereby overturning the justification for the general election to overthrow prosecutorial dictatorship." In particular, he expressed doubt about whether "the Democratic Party's true purpose is to judge the Yoon Seok-yeol prosecution regime through victory in the general election," and questioned, "They call it a system nomination, but if fairness, equity, and transparency are lost, who would trust the rules and leadership of a public party?"

Immediately after the press conference, Ki told reporters, "I am quite afraid because the historic cause of winning the general election and judging the Yoon Seok-yeol regime seems to be wavering," but added, "We must start again. This could be just the beginning."

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