Vehicle Attack and Shincheonji Controversy: 'Competition' Heats Up

[Anchor]

With the Democratic Party's national convention approaching on August 17, the war of nerves among the party leadership candidates is intensifying. Former Representative Jung Chung-rae brought up past remarks made by former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok criticizing President Lee Jae-myung, while former Prime Minister Kim pointed out that a special counsel investigation into Shincheonji was not introduced during Jung's tenure. Amidst this, an incident occurred where a vehicle carrying the former representative was attacked.

Reporter Park Jae-yeon has the story.

[Reporter]

Ahead of the August 17 national convention, the Democratic Party will narrow down its five party leader candidates to three the day after tomorrow (July 23).

Former Representative Jung Chung-rae launched an offensive based on past remarks, noting that former Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, a pro-Lee figure, had criticized President Lee Jae-myung four years ago.

[Jung Chung-rae/Former Democratic Party Representative: Defeat in local elections, Lee Jae-myung's responsibility, personal judgment came first. This is the content of the attack that Representative Kim Min-seok made against then-lawmaker Lee Jae-myung during the August 18 national convention four years ago.]

Former Prime Minister Kim, who has been sharpening his criticism day after day against the former representative for allegedly inciting division within the party, took issue with the fact that a special counsel investigation into Shincheonji was not introduced during Jung's term.

[Kim Min-seok/Former Prime Minister: The essence of this national convention is to break the secret tripartite alliance of anti-Lee sentiment, divisionism, and Shincheonji... I am pointing out things one by one, such as the fact that the Shincheonji special counsel investigation did not proceed...]

Former Representative Jung declared that he would take legal action against the allegations regarding his ties to Shincheonji raised by some within the party, calling them false and distorted information.

Meanwhile, the side of the former representative stated that after the first joint speech yesterday (July 20), there was intimidation and violence, including kicking, directed at the vehicle carrying the former representative, and that the police are investigating the damage to the vehicle.

Kim Bo-mi, former Gangjin County Council member of South Jeolla Province, also demanded an apology, claiming that Representative Song Young-gil shouted at her after she questioned his eligibility as a candidate.

[Kim Bo-mi/Former Gangjin County Council Member: I ask that you please apologize for shouting in front of many people. Isn't it because these things keep piling up that young people call the Democratic Party an unfair party and a party of old-fashioned 686 generation politicians?]

Representative Song's side did not release any particular statement regarding this.

(Video coverage: Oh Young-chun, Kim Yong-woo | Video editing: Park Sun-soo)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.