Rep. Kim Min-seok, who was considered President Lee Jae-myung's "strategist in chief" when they were in the Democratic Party of Korea leadership, has been nominated by Lee for the role of prime minister.
As prime minister, Kim would steer Lee's Cabinet and serve as a key adviser. The position requires the National Assembly's confirmation.
Among first in party to warn about martial law
From as early as August 2024, Kim began raising alarms about former President Yoon Suk Yeol possibly preparing to impose martial law.
Kim was one of the few in the Democratic Party to argue at the time that Yoon was not only thinking about martial law, but taking concrete steps to go through with it.
Kim was met by skepticism even within the Democratic Party, where a sizeable majority had then felt that he was "taking things too far" with the martial law claims.
When Yoon declared martial law on the night of Dec. 3, 2024, Kim's early warnings received renewed attention.
Kim played a "quintessential role" in orchestrating the Democratic Party's response to Yoon's martial law decree.
"He warned about it when no one saw it coming. It's because of him that we were able to respond so promptly," a Democratic Party lawmaker, speaking anonymously, said.
Face of 'new pro-Lee' group
Kim, who faded out of the spotlight after his defeat in the 2002 Seoul mayoral election, made a stunning return under Lee's Democratic Party.
Kim had been at the center of the "new pro-Lee Jae-myung" group -- to be distinguished from the president's allies from before he ran against Yoon as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate in 2022.
Lee's trust in Kim became apparent at the Democratic Party convention in August 2024.
Lee openly supported Kim's serving on the Democratic Party's supreme council, the party's top decision-making body, giving shoutouts to him during YouTube appearances.
The chemistry Lee and Kim seem to share is unusual, considering the two do not go far back. Lee is known for being selective about whom he keeps in his close circle, preferring old connections over newer ones.
Youngest lawmaker of his time to be elected
Kim stepped into the limelight as soon as he entered politics. He was the youngest in the batch of lawmakers elected in the 1996 general election at 32 years of age.
Kim is one of the handful of liberal politicians who can claim former President Kim Dae-jung's political legacy.
As a novice lawmaker, Kim served as chief secretary to the late former president when he was the New Millennium Democratic Party's president.
Jailed for occupying US-owned building in Seoul
Kim was one of some 70 university students to occupy the US Cultural Center near the US Embassy in Seoul in May 1985 in an unarmed protest.
Recalling the protest, Kim said in an interview with a local broadcaster in Gwangju on Oct. 12, 2024, that he was one of the first to raise suspicions that the US might have been behind the "massacre in Gwangju." Kim was referring to the series of pro-democracy protests in May 1980 in Gwangju against the then-government under Chun Doo-hwan, a military dictator.
In the interview, Kim said that when he was the president of the student council at Seoul National University, he called for "uncovering the truths about the possible US intervention in the Gwangju massacre."
"I said something on that scale (in Gwangju) would not have been possible without acquiescence from the US. That's what the US Cultural Center incident is about," Kim said. "It marked the first instance of getting recognition for what happened in Gwangju outside Korea."
Kim served two years and eight months in prison for violating the laws on public demonstrations at the time.
arin@heraldcorp.com
