The center-left Democratic Party of Korea officially went into election mode by announcing major hires for its new election campaign committee Wednesday, with a focus on "social unity."
Among the high-profile hires for Lee's campaign are conservative figures, including Yoon Yeo-joon, former environment minister during the Kim Young-sam administration in the late 1990s, and Lee Seok-yeon, former minister of government legislation under the Lee Myung-bak administration in the late 2000s.
Yoon, 85, will serve as the standing co-chair of Lee's campaign team along with floor leader Rep. Park Chan-dae. Yoon briefly said at the ceremony that he would "do his utmost" to support Lee.
Also joining Lee's camp are former three-term conservative lawmakers Lee In-ki and Kwon Oh-eul. The two former lawmakers and Lee Seok-yeon will lead the subcommittee directly under Lee tasked with national cohesion.
Achieving social unity will be key to "preventing South Korea from going backward," Democratic Party presidential nominee Lee said.
"The upcoming election is not merely a competition between political parties. It is a competition between (South Korea's) future and past, between (parties pushing for) rebound and regression, and between hope and despair," he said.
Figures who were formerly part of liberal administrations, such as Kang Kum-sil, former justice minister; Jung Eun-kyeong, former commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency; Kim Boo-kyum, former prime minister; and Kim Kyoung-soo, former governor of South Gyeongsang Province who contended with Lee in the recent party primary, also joined as nonstanding co-chairs of Lee's campaign team.
Kim Dong-myeong, who leads the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, was also recruited as co-chair of the Lee campaign committee.
Wednesday's first round announcement for the Lee campaign recruits was meant to highlight a need for bringing South Korean society together as a community to overcome economic and social setbacks in the aftermath of the martial law crisis that erupted in December, according to the party. It holds 170 parliamentary seats out of 300 at the National Assembly.
"Rather than being ideologically moderate, conservative or progressive, we are pursuing an election campaign committee to achieve unity in society for South Korea's (next) leap forward," said Rep. Kim Yun-duck, a three-term lawmaker who serves as the secretary general of the Democratic Party, in a briefing before the campaign launch.
Kim added that the party's election campaign committee will "hear the voices of people in every neighborhood alley" to devise election campaign promises.
The party's announcement also suggested that the Lee campaign team will have 15 subcommittees directly under the auspices of Lee, including ones dedicated to demographic challenges, artificial intelligence technologies, climate change, Korean culture, balanced development and smart defense technology, among others.
Also, 35 more subcommittees combined under the Lee campaign team will deal with four pillars of the Lee campaign, namely supporting people's livelihoods, reducing economic inequality, promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula and achieving futuristic national goals.
On Sunday, Rep. Lee Jae-myung became the Democratic Party's presidential nominee as he won 89.77 percent of the votes throughout the primary nationwide. Lee is on his third attempt to run for president. The 61-year-old lost to former President Yoon Suk Yeol in the 2022 election by the smallest margin since the country's democratization in 1987: 0.73 percentage point.
consnow@heraldcorp.com
