Choi Min-hee, a supreme council member of the Democratic Party of Korea aligned with party leader Jung Chung-rae, described the party's declining support rate since the new leadership took office as "dismal" and said she was "deeply sorry as a member of the leadership." She pointed to a sense of loss and disappointment among the party's traditional supporters as the cause and urged the leadership to respond more actively.
Appearing on the YouTube channel "Kim Ou-joon's News Factory" on the 13th, Choi responded to host Kim Ou-joon's remark that the new leadership's record had been "underwhelming" by saying, "'Underwhelming' seems far too elegant a term. It is dismal. As a member of the leadership, I am deeply sorry."
On the reasons for the decline, Choi said the leadership "has never conducted its own analysis," but added that she had "requested at a closed-door supreme council meeting that we draw up measures to address the party's support rate." She singled out recent polls showing falling Democratic Party support among progressives and voters in their 40s, calling it a "sign of crisis."
Choi said expectations for the Lee Jae-myung administration "were very high, but we are failing to meet them," and criticized the government for having "rushed far too quickly on matters that can directly affect the property of many citizens, such as the comprehensive survey of farmland." She went on to assess the controversy over the farmland survey as one of the main reasons for the drop in support in the Honam region.
She distanced herself from the interpretation that internal party conflict over the nomination of Kim Ji-yong as head of the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency was the primary cause. "Many people point to the conflict surrounding nominee Kim Ji-yong as a major cause, but I do not think that is it," she said. "The cause is the sense of deprivation and the wounds felt by our traditional supporters." She added, "Unless the traditional core supporters rally and lock arms, the administration will face great difficulty. The party should have put out stronger messages to reassure its traditional base, but that was inadequate. Follow-up work is needed."
Choi also voiced concern about the mood within the party. "In the early days we were a single united line, but now people are staying silent while they are deeply worried," she said. "The leader is laying out his moves, so we should hope the results turn out well, but things are going in the opposite direction, so we need to come up with measures."
As remedies for reviving support, she proposed swiftly pursuing a special counsel investigation into what the party calls fabricated indictments and considering the impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Jo Hee-de. "We need to move quickly on the fabricated-indictment special counsel," Choi said. "The fact that I am saying this publicly means a degree of consensus has formed within the leadership." On impeaching the chief justice, she said, "I have already signed the impeachment motion," adding, "While we failed to play the role we should have out of fear of a backlash, our support rate has already fallen as much as if we had taken one."