Chung Cheong-rae Broadcasts Live After Defeat: "Kim Min-seok Won, but His Claims Have Lost"

"I will now say what I couldn’t as party leader"

"An organization cannot overcome the wind... This time, the organization was too strong"

Chung Cheong-rae, the former leader of the Democratic Party of Korea who was defeated by newly elected leader Kim Min-seok in the August 17 party convention, acknowledged, "Kim Min-seok has won." However, he emphasized, "Much of what he claims has, in fact, lost."

On August 17, after the convention, Chung held a YouTube live broadcast from his car and said, "Kim said the essence of this convention was to break the secret three-way alliance of anti-Myung (referring to anti-Lee Jae-myung), divisionism, and Shincheonji. But that battle has already been lost." He then added, "Didn't he make a bombshell declaration and then later argue for unity and coalition?"

YouTube live broadcast of Chung Chung-rae, former leader of the Democratic Party of Korea. Screenshot from Chung Chung-rae's YouTube channel.

He continued, "Chung Cheong-rae lost, but Chung Cheong-rae’s supporters have won," adding, "Though I lost, what I advocated has not been entirely defeated." Chung especially stressed that he held the lead in the public opinion poll. In this party convention, Kim won with 54.08% and Chung received 45.92%, but in the public opinion poll reflecting 30% of the results, Chung led with 50.7%, ahead of Kim who had 49.3%.

Regarding these results, Chung said, "This was the outcome after adding the second-choice votes from Song Young-gil’s supporters. Before those votes were counted, I was probably leading by about 5 percentage points (P)." He continued, "For one year as party leader, I held back what I wanted to say and endured. I am not even a monk, but it felt like a bead of patience could form in me. From now on, I will meet you with a brighter spirit and voice opinions I couldn’t express as leader."

To his supporters, he repeatedly appealed, "Please do not leave the party," and said, "The command of the people is binding, and as one of the people myself, I too give this command: With a broad mind, please do your utmost until the end for the success of the Lee Jae-myung administration. I, too, will do my best for its success."

Meanwhile, right after the convention, Chung also met with supporters and stated, "We lost in numbers, but in terms of values and passion, we did not lose." He went on, "An organization cannot beat the wind, but this time the organization was too strong. A master archer does not account for the wind when shooting, but as I could not become a true master archer, I am endlessly sorry to all of you," expressing his regret.

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