[Anchor]

Newly elected Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok emphasized a "one team without walls" regarding party-presidential office relations. Meanwhile, former representative Chung Cheong-rae, who competed against him, appealed to his supporters not to leave the party and to protect him until the end.

Reporter Kim Kwan-jin has the story.

[Reporter]

Newly elected Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok embraces Cheong Wa Dae Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-shik, who visited the National Assembly to offer congratulations.

[Kim Min-seok / Leader, Democratic Party]: "I have come to feel a sense of expectation and responsibility that we will achieve completion and communication as a one team without walls."

President Lee Jae-myung delivered this message to the Democratic Party during yesterday's Cabinet meeting on August 18.

[President Lee Jae-myung]: "Even if they were opponents who fiercely competed against each other, their responsibility as partners bearing a joint responsibility for the people and the country is no different."

In Leader Kim's first party appointments, it drew attention that lawmaker Han Jeong-ae, who served as the policy committee chair under the preceding Chung Cheong-rae leadership, was appointed as the secretary-general overseeing party affairs.

Defeated former representative Chung Cheong-rae made the following request to his supporters, saying, "Kim Min-seok won, but his arguments lost, and Chung Cheong-rae lost, but his supporters won."

[Chung Cheong-rae / Former Democratic Party Leader]: "You must not leave the party. The owners of the party are you, the party members. Please stay until the end and protect me."

Pro-Cheong Wa Dae Senior Supreme Council Member Choi Minhee claimed that it was an "unfair national convention."

[Choi Minhee / Senior Supreme Council Member, Democratic Party (KBS Radio 'Jeong-geok Sisa')]: "I also think the management of this national convention will remain as a dark history for the Democratic Party. Party members are enraged about the unfairness."

How will the party's Supreme Council be formed under the "Kim Min-seok leadership," which has a two-year term and holds the nomination authority for the 2028 general elections?

Led by Leader Kim Min-seok and Floor Leader Han Byeong-do, the composition includes three pro-Cheong Wa Dae and two pro-Lee Jae-myung elected supreme council members, plus two supreme council members appointed by Leader Kim, giving figures close to Leader Kim a majority out of the total nine members.

Leader Kim has previously stated his intention to assign one of the appointed supreme council positions to a young person.

Today, the Democratic Party will hold the new leadership's first Supreme Council meeting, and Leader Kim, along with former leadership competitors Chung Cheong-rae and Song Young-gil, will have dinner at Cheong Wa Dae upon the invitation of President Lee Jae-myung.

(Camera & Video Reporting: Oh Young-chun, Kim Yong-woo | Video Editing: Park Sun-soo | Design: Park Taeyoung)