(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Gyeong-jong and Choi Joo-seong = On the 20th, Kim Min-seok, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, nominated Rep. Jeon Yong-ki (re-elected, Hwaseongjeong, Gyeonggi-do), a 30-year-old member, and Kwon Mi-kyung, a woman, chairwoman of the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and National Public Solidarity, as nominated top members.
Representative Kim announced the selection of the highest appointed members at the general meeting of lawmakers held at the National Assembly on this day.
Representative Jeon was appointed as the top member of the youth section, and Chairman Kwon was appointed as the top member of the labor section.
The former lawmaker served as chairman of the party's National University Student Committee, standing vice-chairman of the policy committee, and senior vice-president of in-house communication.
Chairman Kwon, who worked as a nurse at Yonsei Medical Center, served as chairman of the Severance Hospital Labor Union and was elected to the Seoul Metropolitan Council in 2014.
The appointment will be confirmed once it is approved by the Party Affairs Committee after a resolution by the Supreme Committee on the 21st.
Regarding the appointment, CEO Kim also said, “We even considered the region and the number of men and women.”
Rep. Jeon is from Masan, South Gyeongsang Province, which is a poor region for the party, and Chairman Kwon is also from Samcheok, Gangwon Province, which has strong conservative tendencies.
If the two people are confirmed as nominated top members, three of the nine new leadership members will be women.
However, there are signs of conflict between the leadership as top members of the pro-Qing faction, including Choi Min-hee, Lee Seong-yoon, and Han Min-soo, all protested on the grounds that there was no prior consultation.
Ahead of the national convention, the Democratic Party initially reviewed the youth supreme council member system, in which one out of five elected supreme council members would be separately elected by youth, but decided not to introduce it.
Accordingly, Representative Kim announced during the national convention that he would nominate one of the nominated top committee members as a youth supreme committee member.
In addition, he said, “We will revise the party constitution and rules to allow young people to enter (the leadership) as at least one elected top member.”
Regarding the failure to implement this at the general meeting that day, Representative Kim explained, "We were also concerned about the issue of dual party affiliation (during the election process) of voters, and we concluded that (electing youth supreme council members) was impossible due to the contradiction that the election of youth council chairpersons overlaps with the voters and elected candidates."
In response to Representative Kim's decision, Supreme Council member Choi criticized on Facebook, "If the nomination of the Supreme Council member, which is a matter for resolution at the highest level, is suddenly made public at the general meeting without at least minimal consultation, will it be properly resolved?"
Supreme Council member Lee also pointed out on Facebook, "The party constitution stipulates that 'the party leader nominates two supreme council members, and one of the nominated supreme council members first appoints a person from a strategic region.'" He also pointed out, "It is in the right order to decide on strategic regions at the highest level and the party affairs committee first."
One Supreme Council member posted a post on Facebook, saying, “The Supreme Council has been virtually neutralized by a unilateral notification from the General Assembly of Representatives,” and requested that “procedural problems be corrected.”
