Lee Jin-sook Drops Out of Daegu Mayor’s Race After PPP Cutoff

Lee Jin-sook, a former chair of the Korea Communications Commission who was cut from the People Power Party’s primary for Daegu mayor, said April 25 she will not run in the June 3 local election. With Rep. Joo Ho-young also having declared he will not run, the party’s internal turmoil over the Daegu race appeared to ease.

Speaking at a news conference at the People Power Party’s Daegu office, Lee said, “Today, I am stepping down from the position of preliminary candidate for Daegu mayor.” She added, “When the People Power Party’s Daegu mayoral candidate is chosen tomorrow (26th), I will do my best to help that person defeat the Democratic Party candidate. I will help protect Daegu from the reckless Democratic Party government.”

Lee again called the party nomination committee’s decision to cut her unfair, but said she would not run as an independent. “I also had the desire to leave the party and run as an independent to receive the judgment and choice of citizens,” she said. But she said she was held back by concerns that “if even Daegu is handed over to the left, what will happen to the Republic of Korea,” adding that she feared Daegu, a conservative stronghold, could be overtaken by “socialist populism.”

Asked whether she might run in a possible parliamentary by-election that could arise from the Daegu mayoral contest, Lee did not answer directly. “As I said in my statement, I have only one 마음 — to protect Daegu as the last bastion of liberal democracy,” she said.

Asked whether she had further meetings with party leader Jang Dong-hyuk or other members of the nomination committee, Lee said Jang met her before leaving for the United States and that they met again recently to discuss the Daegu situation. “We discussed how to protect Daegu, and there was also common ground,” she said.