Ruling party feud deepens over merger push

Feb 04, 2026, 07:41 am

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Democratic Party leader Jeong Cheong-rae covers his face during a National Assembly plenary session on Feb. 3. / Lee Byung-hwa

Infighting within South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party of Korea has intensified as controversy over a proposed party merger shows no sign of easing, despite efforts by party leader Jeong Cheong-rae to contain the fallout.

According to political sources on Feb. 3, Jeong has recently met separately for lunch and dinner with Supreme Council members Lee Eon-ju and Hwang Myung-sun, seeking direct dialogue after heated exchanges over the merger proposal erupted during leadership meetings.

Lee was quoted as telling Jeong over lunch, “We should not waste energy on a hasty merger early in the president’s term. This is the president’s time, not ours.” She added that while aspiring to future leadership is natural, “it is inappropriate for the ruling party to engage in presidential ambitions from the very start of a new administration,” urging that opinions from the Supreme Council and lawmakers’ caucus be fully gathered before moving forward.

Hwang echoed similar concerns in a YouTube interview, saying he had told Jeong that the political situation needed to be stabilized first and that “a merger should not be pursued before the local elections.”

Another Supreme Council member, Kang Deuk-gu, said it was “already somewhat late” for Jeong to be meeting members individually after the issue had publicly escalated.

Opposition to the merger is spreading beyond pro-Lee Jae-myung figures to include first-term lawmakers. Some, including Kim Moon-soo, have proposed launching an all-member signature campaign calling for a halt to what they describe as a “rushed merger.”

The group of second-term lawmakers known as “The Minjae” is also set to hold discussions on the issue on Feb. 4. Second-term lawmaker Jang Cheol-min criticized the situation in a radio interview, saying, “The merger debate has turned into a power struggle and a waste of party resources.”

The controversy has fueled speculation that the dispute is a prelude to a broader battle over the party’s future leadership, particularly after Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, widely seen as a potential rival to Jeong after the local elections, joined the criticism.

As tensions mount, calls within the party are growing for structured opinion-gathering, including public debates. Lawmaker Jin Sung-joon urged the leadership to present discussion procedures and schedules, a proposal echoed by Yoon Kun-young and Han Jun-ho, who called for the creation of a formal body to deliberate the merger.

Meanwhile, the Rebuilding Korea Party has taken a wait-and-see approach. Supreme Council member Shin Jang-sik said on a radio program that the party’s electoral strategy was to compete with the Democrats in the Honam region while forming alliances elsewhere.

“This was about seeing where things might go — just ‘dating,’ so to speak — but suddenly it turned into a marriage proposal,” Shin said. “Then out of nowhere, the in-laws show up, demanding to know what right we have, splashing water and slapping us with kimchi. That’s how it feels.”

#Democratic Party #party merger dispute #Rebuilding Korea Party #Jeong Cheong-rae