New Democratic Party Primary Resumes Without Lee, Sohn

The United New Democratic Party’s primary race resumed on October 8 after its suspension a week ago, but was missing its two frontrunners.

In a party speech session in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, the first of its kind after the resumption of the primary, Sohn Hak-gyu, former governor of Gyeonggi Province, and Lee Hae-chan, former prime minister, did not participate.

Chung Dong-young, former chairman of the Uri Party, was the only speaker at the joint speech session.

However, Lee said that he would join discussion sessions on the Internet and radio slated for October 9.

Lee Ki-u, spokesperson of the UNDP’s primary committee, said, “The party leadership planned to move ahead with the primary from October 8, and we will carry out joint speech sessions in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province today, and in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province on October 10, as scheduled,” after a committee meeting.

Chung said that he would speak at the joint speech session in Seoul and Gyeonggi on October 10, but that primary candidates Sohn and Lee have not decided if they will or not yet.

In a press conference yesterday, Lee said, “Considering the current atmosphere of each camp, there could be fights among supporters at the speech session. I will wait until October 9 before making a decision on whether I will participate in the speech session the next day.” Sohn also said, “I will wait.”

In response to the police attempt to search his headquarters, Chung, the only speaker at the session, argued, “If the police had requested my cooperation, the data would have been turned over to them. I will cooperate, but I can never forgive the police for trying to search my headquarters.”

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