President Lee to Host Dinner for 9 Senior Ruling Party Lawmakers with 5+ Terms, in Unity Push

First meeting since taking office to be held at the Blue House on Oct. 28
Song Younggil, Park Jiwon and Chung Dongyoung among attendees

President Lee Jaemyung will host a dinner at Cheong Wa Dae on the 28th for nine senior Democratic Party lawmakers who have served five or more terms. With factional tensions within the party continuing, the dinner is intended to promote unity within the ruling camp and hear the senior lawmakers' views on running state affairs.

President Lee Jaemyung speaks at a Cabinet meeting at Cheong Wa Dae on Oct. 27, 2026. Yonhap News.

According to political sources on the 27th, the nine lawmakers expected to attend are Song Young-gil, Park Jie-won, Chung Dong-young, Woo Won-shik, Ahn Gyu-baek, Jung Sung-ho, Yoon Ho-jung, Lee In-young and Kim Tae-nyeon. This will be the first time President Lee has held a separate dinner with Democratic Party lawmakers who have served five or more terms since taking office.

The dinner is expected to include an exchange of views on the overall management of state affairs and discussion of the role senior lawmakers can play in resolving internal party tensions. This comes as conflict between the pro-Lee (pro-Lee Jaemyung) and pro-Cheong (pro-Jung Cheong-rae) factions, which surfaced around the local elections in June and the party convention in August, has yet to subside.

In particular, as tensions within the ruling camp over the appointment of Kim Ji-yong as the first head of the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency and differences over prosecution reform continue, the president may deliver a message emphasizing party unity and stability in the running of state affairs. The recent decline in public support for the administration and ways to address livelihood issues are also expected to come up in the discussions.

President Lee has been stepping up efforts to promote unity by expanding his contacts with veteran and senior politicians in the ruling camp. On the 26th, he invited former National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik to Cheong Wa Dae for a luncheon that lasted about 90 minutes. Cheong Wa Dae said the two held a wide-ranging discussion on the overall management of state affairs and that President Lee particularly stressed the importance of unity. Former Speaker Woo was also said to have strongly agreed.

On July 1, President Lee also invited former President Moon Jae-in to Cheong Wa Dae for lunch, where he emphasized the need for unity. In February, he also expressed his commitment to governing through unity at a luncheon with the Democratic Party's advisory council.

Political observers interpret the dinner as an effort to draw on the senior lawmakers' political experience to mediate tensions within the ruling camp and strengthen the administration's ability to steer state affairs. Attention is focused on whether President Lee will ask senior lawmakers, beyond communicating with the party leadership, to help foster unity within the party and advance the administration's policy agenda.

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