Democratic Party of Korea Targets 200 Seats for Itself and Related Parties in 2024 General Election

2024-4-9, Tara O

The Democratic Party of Korea has been stating their target of obtaining 200 seats (of 300 total seats) in the 2024 General Election to elect the members of the National Assembly.  Having a 2/3 majority would give them the power to not only pass any laws they want, but also to change the constitution, override presidential vetoes, and impeach the president.

In the 2020 General Election, the Democratic Party of Korea predicted a whopping 180 seats, and indeed, it won 180 seats in a landslide election victory, which shocked the public.  It has been mired in an election fraud controversy, which still has not been resolved. The 2020 election results gave the Democratic Party 3/5 majority, which meant it could pass any law it wanted without consulting other parties, except the constitution.

Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Jae-myung, 2024-3-21, source: Chosun Ilbo

On March 22, 2024, 14 candidates of the DPK held a press conference in Incheon, and they singularly talked of their target of securing 200 seats at the National Assembly: 

Chung Il-young (정일영): “Let’s judge aggressively, so that we can be the Democratic Party with more than 200 seats.”

Kim Kyo-heung (김교흥): “If 14 seats in Incheon are elected, we can win 200 seats.  If the next person [Cho Taek-sang[ wins, we will have 200 seats.”

Cho Taek-sang (조택상):  “#200 is here. I’m Cho Taek-sang. Glad to see you. I’m Cho Taek-sang, #200 for Jung-gu, Ganghwa, [and] Ongjin [counties).”

One day earlier, on March 21, 2024, Park Ji-won, a candidate for Haenam, Wando, and Jindo counties in South Jeolla Province, also stated, “If the Democratic, Progressive, and Reform [민주, 진보, 개혁] forces make a leap forward and win 200 seats, then it’s possible to impeach President Yoon” on CBS radio.

Park Ji-won was President Kim Dae-jung’s right hand man, who went to prison for corruption and bribery, including transferring funds to North Korea prior to Kim Dae-jung’s meeting with Kim Jong-il in 2000.  Park is also the former leader of the People’s Party (국민의당) established in 2016 and it merged with the Bareun Party two years later to become the Bareunmirae Party in 2018.  As the leader of the People’s Party, Park Ji-won was one of the key drivers of the effort that impeached president Park Geun-hye on various false charges.  Park Ji-won was later appointed as the director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) by Moon Jae-in and made a number of controversial decisions during his tenure.

By “Democratic, Progressive, and Reform [민주, 진보, 개혁]” forces in Park Je-wons’ statement, he is referring to the parties on the left, as those words as well as hyeoksin (“innovation”) are often used by those on the left in South Korean political history.

The “Democratic” force refers to the Democratic Party of Korea (the Deobureo Minju Party).

The “Progressive” force refers to Democratic Party of Korea’s satellite party, the Deobureo Minju Union Party, created only for the purpose of obtaining seats for proportional representatives, who are not directly elected by popular vote, but by the total number of votes that a political party receives.  Creating a separate, but connected party only for the proportional representatives allows a greater number to be elected due to the Semi-interlocked Proportional Representatives Election System (준연동형 비례대표제 선거법) law, forced through the National Assembly just prior to the 2020 general election.  After an election, the proportional representatives for the Deobureo Minju Union Party are absorbed into the Democratic Party of Korea, and the satellite party (Deobureo Minju Union Party) goes away.

By “Reform” force,  Park Ji-won means the recently formed party led by Cho Kuk, simply referred to as the Cho Kuk Dang (Cho Kuk Party, 조국당) in Korean, which literally means “fatherland party,” but is also a play on the party leader’s name.  Although its website does not have an English translation of the party (as of April 9, 2024), western journalists have been using the “Rebuilding Korea Party,” which has a different sense than “fatherland.”  In Korean, its longer version name is Cho Kuk Hyeoksin Dang (the Cho Kuk innovation party or literally fatherland innovation party, 조국혁신당).

Cho Kuk, the party leader, was the former Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs and Justice in Moon Jae-in’s administration, and then was appointed as Justice Minister, which lasted only about a month due to various corruption cases and other political scandals.  In his student days, Cho Kuk was a member of the radical left Namhan Sahoe Juui Nodongja Dongmaeng (남한사회주의노동자동맹) or the Socialist Workers League of Korea (SWLK) under Sanomaeng, an organization dedicated to overthrowing the South Korean government.  For details, see here. Due to a power struggle in the left-wing camp, Lee Jae-myung, the current leader of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), did not nominate Cho Kuk and other former members of the DPK who served under Moon Jae-in (such as Im Jong-seok) to run on the DPK’s ballot in 2024, and they created a separate political party.