Kim Min-seok leaves open merger or alliance with Cho Kuk Innovation Party

South Korea’s Democratic Party is preparing for closer cooperation with the Cho Kuk Innovation Party, but its leader says no one yet knows whether that will lead to a merger.

Kim Min-seok said the two parties would follow a broad principle of cooperation while leaving the final structure undecided. He said the outcome could be a formal merger or another type of alliance, and that Democratic Party members could not predict the result at this stage.

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The principle is to cooperate in any case, although no one knows whether the form of cooperation will be a merger or something else.

The format, Kim said, would be handled through democratic procedures after the parties confirm the overwhelming preferences of their members. He also asked the Cho Kuk Innovation Party to designate a channel for talks.

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The final result, whether it will be an alliance or a merger, is an unknown area.

Kim made the comments while explaining the background to President Lee Jae-myung’s cabinet reshuffle, which included lawmakers from the Cho Kuk Innovation Party and the Basic Income Party. Political circles have viewed the reshuffle as an effort to strengthen cooperation across progressive forces. Some analysts have also described it as preparation for broader centrist expansion ahead of the 2028 parliamentary election and the 2030 presidential election.

Kim said the Democratic Party had already agreed to discuss electoral, party and political systems with progressive reform parties, including the Social Democratic Party, the Progressive Party and the Basic Income Party. He said those discussions would accelerate after the reshuffle.

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We will proceed after confirming the overwhelming wishes of members of both parties through democratic procedures.

Separately, Kim said the party would form a task force to pursue the transfer of wartime operational control. He appointed Kim Byung-joo, a Democratic Party lawmaker and former four-star Army general who served as deputy commander of the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command, to lead it. Kim Min-seok said changing U.S. attitudes and South Korea’s need to maintain its alliance while prioritizing security made a deeper review of the issue necessary.

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There has been a change that makes it necessary to look more deeply into the issue of wartime operational control.