- President Lee's Honam Mega Project? Mega-Scale Anger
- Public Tax Money Should Not Be Spent Without Feasibility Studies
- SK Raised Doubts Just Two Months Ago... Suspicions of Government-Controlled Economy
- The Issue Is Not Honam Itself, but Whether the Infrastructure Is Ready
- Many Past Failures, Worried It Might Turn Out Like Saemangeum
- History of Conservatives Is to Step Down If Election Judgment Is Poor
- Not Much Time Left to Prepare for General Election, Urgent Need for Change
- Approval Ratings? They Will Drop If We Fight to Keep Our Seats
- Han Dong-hoon Invited to Foreign Affairs Forum? Yun Jae-ok Is a Rational Figure
- Jang Dong-hyeok Leaving Immediately Is Petty... No More Disciplinary Politics
■ Broadcast: SBS Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show (FM 103.5 MHz 7:00 – 9:00)
■ Date: July 1, 2026 (Wednesday)
■ Host: Attorney Kim Tae-hyun
■ Guest: Kim Sung-tae, Former Representative of the People Power Party
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Who made him angry today, and over what? Joining us on Wednesday is "Angry Sung-tae," former People Power Party Representative Kim Sung-tae. Hello.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Hello. This is Kim Sung-tae.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Who is it, practically speaking?
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Actually, I should stop being angry today. Today is the day Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon takes office after surviving through all kinds of hardships.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Today?
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Today is the inauguration day for all metropolitan and local government heads, as well as metropolitan and local council members across the country.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: In any case, congratulations to all the winners.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Congratulations to them.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Please do a good job for the next four years.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: It is an important task.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: So, you won't be angry today?
▶ Kim Sung-tae: I still have to be.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Of course. Who is it this time?
▶ Kim Sung-tae: A mega-scale anger has emerged.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: What is it?
▶ Kim Sung-tae: President Lee Jae-myung's three major mega-projects have been announced since the day before yesterday (June 29) and yesterday (June 30). Yesterday, there was another on-site presentation in Gwangju. Looking at this series of announcements, every past administration has tried to bring about major changes through massive projects or national restructuring...
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: National projects.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Commonly referred to as balanced national development, or creating industrial hub cities, cities of change and innovation in marginalized and vulnerable regions—every past administration has attempted major changes with massive projects. However, when these are done for political achievements without sufficient feasibility studies, using public tax money, and end up failing, the political forces face political judgment from the public. But in this case, the administration has, simply put, put South Korea's world-class, top-tier companies at the forefront.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Now, regarding the semiconductor investment in Honam—if Honam has good conditions as a location for the semiconductor business, it is highly important and beneficial for the government to build various infrastructures and provide administrative and national support to speed things up.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: But just two months ago, SK Hynix Chairman Chey Tae-won attended a National Assembly forum. Rumors about semiconductor investment in Honam had been bubbling up since the end of the second half of last year, starting with Policy Chief Kim Yong-beom.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Yet, at the National Assembly forum two months ago, Chey raised doubts, asking if they really had to go there. What on earth has changed in the world in just two months, and how did SK Hynix decide to build a major fab in the Honam region through an investment of nearly 2,000 trillion won, even if we are in the AI era? Normally, to build a semiconductor fab—meaning a production line—it takes at least five to six years of review. They must meticulously check everything from site selection to water, power, and infrastructure, and verify the government's commitments and support plans before making a final decision. How can a company that even mentioned the possibility of going abroad make such a decision in just two months?
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: So, the reason you oppose this is not because investing in Honam is bad, but because you view it as the president or the government pressuring companies for political purposes without thorough planning or preparation?
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Exactly. It looks like a government-controlled economy. In the past, state-led growth and state-led national reforms and transformations—such as the Gyeongbu Expressway or Pohang Iron and Steel (POSCO) during President Park Chung-hee's era—were certainly led by the state.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Hyundai Engineering & Construction Chairman Chung Ju-yung pulled off the Gyeongbu Expressway in just two years, working under torchlight. Back then, when the Gyeongbu Expressway was being built, opposition figures like former President Kim Dae-jung and YS (Kim Young-sam) literally lay down in protest.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Back in those days.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Absolutely. Nevertheless, the bold vision and determination of such a leader bore fruit, and there is no doubt it became the engine for South Korea's great development today. However, even back then, the government had prepared the details very deeply.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: In this case, while Samsung and SK Hynix are already building the massive Yongin Semiconductor Cluster, the government has actually been negligent, in my view, in providing faster support to speed up that project and quickly capitalize on the semiconductor boom driven by the current AI surge. Instead, for this Gwangju investment, the president rolled up his sleeves, stood Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Chairman Chey Tae-won next to him, and basically said, "Let's do this," pouring in 400 trillion won each, and trying to build the fab there within his four-year term. This is what worries me. It becomes dangerous if we go down this path.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yesterday, the president said that, to put it nicely, there was encouragement, or to put it bluntly, incentives, but there was no coercion or forcing.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Why would the president even need to say that?
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Why?
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Private corporate investment is naturally a decision made after companies spend a long time analyzing, checking, pre-monitoring, and running simulations on various factors. They also adjust production processes based on demand. But if the presidential chief of staff says they will get this done within the president's four-year term, it completely clashes with the companies' own plans.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: The president said that Honam has faced a lot of discrimination and made many sacrifices in the past, so historical compensation is necessary.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: In that regard, I do not take issue with the decision on the location for Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix's 800 trillion won investment to transition to a multi-polar regional system. My point is whether the foundation and conditions have been established for it. Just blindly saying "let's try this" in the middle of an empty field is... You know the Gangseo Magok district right next to our SBS Mokdong headquarters here in Yangcheon, right?
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes, that's right.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Magok was the last development site in Seoul.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Indeed.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: The late LG Group Chairman Koo Bon-moo gathered ten LG Group affiliates there in a convergence hub called Science Park.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: But the infrastructure was well-established?
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Before he passed away, he told me that LG had recruited top talent and set up R&D and production facilities in Pyeongtaek, Gumi, and Changwon, but the talent kept leaving. Because educational infrastructure and culture were not in place, those talented individuals just left for places like Hong Kong and China.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: So, your point is that the government did not attract the companies after properly establishing the infrastructure in Gwangju.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: There are too many cases where past administrations pushed things too politically and ended up in disaster. Let me give you just one representative example. Take Saemangeum, which has been ongoing for 30 years.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes, under any administration, that has been...
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Every administration promised to develop and advance the Saemangeum Mega City. Has even one of those promises been fulfilled? For over 30 years, every time they brought it up, they talked about a multi-functional city, an international financial center, and a new airport, but then we had that disaster with the Jamboree two years ago (in 2024). Because the scale is so massive, this is how I see it.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Understood.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: It will only prematurely drive up land prices in Gwangju, trigger a real estate speculation frenzy, and delay the project. How are they going to take responsibility for that chaos later?
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: I see. So this week's target of anger was the president's investment plan announcement. Now, let's talk about your traditional target of anger, the People Power Party.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: I've talked about them so much. Is there anything left to say?
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: You are still angry at the People Power Party, right?
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Yes, of course. I am still angry.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: But recently, the Supreme Council has been in absolute chaos, both in public and private meetings. Supreme Council members Woo Jae-joon and Kim Min-soo are clashing fiercely. Meanwhile, Representative Jang Dong-hyeok says, "No matter what decision the general assembly of lawmakers or the Supreme Council makes, I will absolutely not step down." What do you think of Representative Jang's stance? If he means what he says, he plans to serve out his term until August next year (2027).
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: He's basically saying, "The local elections went well, and we have the upcoming by-elections, so why should I go anywhere? I should complete my term." That's his point.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: This year marks the 78th year of our constitutional history. Some trace the long roots of conservatism all the way back to the Syngman Rhee administration, so I will mention this: even President Syngman Rhee stepped down when the Liberal Party collapsed after the March 15 rigged election. Throughout history, whether from the democratic-progressive camp or the conservative camp, political leaders have immediately relinquished their party leadership—even if it was power granted by party members—if the outcome of the public's choice and judgment was poor. Usually, once the election results were announced, they did so by midnight, early morning, or at the latest, the following morning.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: That was indeed the norm.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: That is the constitutional history of South Korea and the history of our political parties.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: But he claims they won, saying the election results were decent this time.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Pardon?
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Representative Jang Dong-hyeok's point is that the election results are much better than after the 2018 impeachment. They won in Seoul and Gyeongnam. So he's asking, "Why are you calling it a failure and telling me to step down?"
▶ Kim Sung-tae: So, while he evaluates it as a victory in his own way, many citizens and political analysts agree that the results of the June 3 local elections were a crushing defeat for the conservative camp, with a quantitative score of 12 to 4. Specifically, there were some meaningful report cards, such as Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon defending his mayoral seat.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: But did Mayor Oh actually receive help from Representative Jang Dong-hyeok?
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Did Mayor Oh Se-hoon defend his Seoul mayoral seat because of Representative Jang Dong-hyeok's help? Also, regarding our reclamation of the Democratic Party's sole stronghold in Busan—where we sent a decent candidate, a former Blue House Senior Secretary for Future Planning, to challenge Representative Jeon Jae-soo's monumental achievement of winning three terms—we barely won after a fierce battle in a divided race involving both the conservative People Power Party candidate and an independent candidate. If that candidate had won with the overwhelming support of the People Power Party, I would be fine with it. We could go with that. But that wasn't the case.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: But we lost.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: The same goes for Yu Eui-dong in Pyeongtaek-eul. In terms of substance, everyone knows that those who stood on their own received a certain level of public judgment separate from the party. What remains now is that the main opposition party must properly check, counter, and criticize President Lee Jae-myung's absolute power and the Democratic Party's runaway legislative power, playing the role of a leading opposition party that prevents the balance and order of South Korea from breaking down. To do that, you must also clean up your act and make efforts to change and innovate. That is the message of the election results.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Then, with the party changing like that, where should our primary goal be set? It must be set on the 2028 general election. After that, we move toward the 2030 presidential election. With less than 10 months remaining until August next year, can our party regain public trust, reorganize our ranks, and win the votes of the public to secure a majority in the general election? Can we dismantle the giant legislative power of the Democratic Party and correct the various legislative actions unilaterally pushed through by the current Lee Jae-myung administration and the Democratic Party?
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Therefore, starting now, the party needs a new transformation with the determination to self-correct, change, and innovate. Following the June 3 election, the public is showing considerable support for our party. But if we fight endlessly over whether someone should step down or keep their seat just because of this support, that support will evaporate in the blink of an eye. Just wait and see.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: I see. Here is some news from yesterday (June 30). Representative Han Dong-hoon joined the Foreign Affairs and Security Forum, which has many pro-Yoon lawmakers. When Representative Han was invited to the group Telegram chat and posted, "Thank you for inviting me. I am Han Dong-hoon," right below it, it showed "Jang Dong-hyeok has left the group." Representative Jang left immediately. Was it really necessary to go that far? What do you think other lawmakers thought when they saw this?
▶ Kim Sung-tae: Although Representative Yun Jae-ok is typically referred to as a pro-Yoon figure, he is a rational, personal, and balanced individual. He is also someone who tries to mediate and coordinate when there is conflict and division within the party, and he has an excellent character.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Yes.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: He is the central figure in creating that Foreign Affairs and Security Forum. Almost all figures in our conservative camp participate in it to lend their strength and gather collective wisdom. Frankly speaking, Representative Han Dong-hoon is currently an independent lawmaker in name only, but in reality, he is someone who intends to align all of his politics with the conservative People Power Party camp. For the party representative to see him join and immediately leave the group can be perceived as petty. That was not appropriate.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Understood. We are out of time.
▶ Kim Sung-tae: And we should not engage in disciplinary politics at this juncture.
▷ Kim Tae-hyun: Understood. That was former Representative Kim Sung-tae. Thank you.
The copyright of this interview material belongs to SBS Radio.
When publishing the full text or quoting this interview,
please specify the channel name and the exact program name as follows.
[SBS Kim Tae-hyun's Political Show]
※
Copying, redistribution, and unauthorized use in AI training are strictly prohibited.