Prime Minister Kim Min-seok Targets Rhyu Si-min: "Excessive Confidence of Having Made the President Must Be Restrained"

Prime Minister Kim Min-seok addressed the escalating factional conflicts within the party ahead of the August national convention, stating, "There are instances where people criticize the President with an excessive sense of confidence, as if they were the ones who made him President. Such attitudes and mindsets need to be appropriately restrained."

Speaking to reporters while attending a workshop for female winners of the Democratic Party of Korea in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, on the morning of June 27, Prime Minister Kim remarked on the internal party conflict, saying, "It is something that can happen ahead of an election, and it is a phenomenon arising from the disappointment over election results."

Prime Minister Kim's remarks appear to be aimed at writer Rhyu Si-min, a prominent figure in the ruling bloc, who mentioned yesterday, "What the people who passionately protected and supported the President during his path to the presidency wanted was an expansion, but it seems the President intended to rebuild. Perhaps the President was overly confident."

At the workshop, he expressed concern regarding the results of the June 3 local elections, which were led by former party leader Jung Chung-rae, saying, "We stumbled," and added, "If we lose the center, it will be difficult to win in the future. We have reached a situation where anxiety is creeping in that we might continue to remain an opposition party if we are not careful."

He continued, "The President must not waver, and the government must not waver," emphasizing, "I now want to work on making the Democratic Party a winning party again."

Prime Minister Kim stated, "I will be stepping down from the premiership in a few days," adding, "I felt that after working hard for a year as a dispatched official to the government, it was time to return to the party."

He further proposed, "Let us work together with the comrades here to establish the party's direction, expand further, and rebuild a winning Democratic Party, so that when we look back 20 or 30 years from now, we can say that the history we created together opened a new golden age for the Democratic Party."

When asked by the media about the possibility of running in the August national convention, Prime Minister Kim replied, "I will speak about it when the time comes after I return to the party."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.