Song Young-gil and Kim Yong Face Candidacy Crisis Ahead of Convention: "Time Lost to Prosecution Cannot Be Grounds for Disqualification"

Emergency Press Conference Held

Supreme Council Discusses Disqualification Grounds

Regarding candidate registration for the 8·17 National Convention of the Democratic Party of Korea, the eligibility of former Representative Song Young-gil and former Vice President Kim Yong of the Democratic Research Institute has become an issue. On the day when the party's Supreme Council convened to discuss candidate qualifications, the two held an emergency press conference insisting, "The time taken away by the prosecution cannot be considered as grounds for disqualification."

In a joint statement the same day, Song and Kim said, "Last night, the Supreme Council decided not to refer the agenda item on recognizing an exception to our party membership qualification as voting members to the Party Affairs Committee. This essentially closed the very process for judgment stipulated by party regulations. Since we cannot accept this decision, we want to directly address members and the public."

They explained, "Song Young-gil voluntarily gave up his party membership to avoid burdening the party, endured 329 days of imprisonment, and was ultimately found not guilty. After being reinstated, he paid party dues every month without exception. Yet, it is now said that the number of payments falls short because of the time lost due to the prosecution's actions." They continued, "Kim Yong was imprisoned for 550 days as his accounts were frozen by a fabricated prosecution case, and he was unable to use his own phone or credit card. His ability to transfer dues was totally restricted, yet this is still considered nonpayment," they criticized.

Former Representative Song Young-gil and Former Vice President Kim Yong of the Democratic Research Institute walking to the Supreme Council meeting of the Democratic Party of Korea. Photo provided by the office of former Representative Song.

The two stated, "The blank spaces in our party dues payment records do not represent laziness, but rather the time of prosecutorial oppression. The prosecution took time away from us, and now the party is labeling that lost time as grounds for disqualification."

In this regard, both parties said, "The Supreme Council should immediately reconvene and refer the exception recognition agenda to the Party Affairs Committee, and the Party Affairs Committee must assemble without delay to deliberate in accordance with the regulations so as not to hinder the candidate registration schedule."

According to Democratic Party regulations, only those who joined as voting members at least six months prior to the date of exercising rights and who paid party dues at least six times in the year before exercising those rights are eligible in party office elections. Currently, Song and Kim do not meet these requirements.

On the same day, former Prime Minister Kim Minseok, who has completed his candidate registration for the party chairmanship at the national convention, posted on X (formerly Twitter) that "the circumstances the two are facing are exceptions that members can fully understand," and he "earnestly appeals that both should be allowed to register as candidates."

This morning, the Democratic Party is holding another emergency Supreme Council meeting to discuss whether to call a Party Affairs Committee to consider granting exceptions for Song and Kim.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.