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On March 12, Rep. Joo Ho-young — the National Assembly deputy speaker and a People Power Party pre-candidate for Daegu mayor — and former Korea Communications Commission chair Lee Jin-sook urged lawmakers to pass the Daegu–Gyeongbuk (TK) administrative integration special law after it failed to clear the National Assembly.
In a five-minute floor speech, Joo warned that without administrative integration to halt the outflow of young people to the Seoul metropolitan area in search of work, Daegu and Gyeongbuk could ultimately face demographic collapse.
He described the refusal to advance the TK administrative integration bill as an overtly partisan and discriminatory act that grants preferential treatment only to Jeonnam and Gwangju — the party’s strongholds — and cautioned that it risks violating constitutional guarantees of equality and the constitutional provision on balanced national development.
Lee also released a statement at the People Power Party’s Daegu office in Suseong District, reiterating the call for lawmakers to pass the integration bill.
She accused the Democratic Party of committing a political outrage by refusing to consider the TK bill while insisting on simultaneous consideration of a Chungnam–Daejeon integration special law, characterizing the move as a petty tactic aimed at splitting regional opinion and exploiting that division ahead of local elections.
Lee said that if TK integration ultimately collapses before the local elections, she will make integration her top campaign pledge in the Daegu mayoral race and begin comprehensive preparations. If she secures the People Power Party nomination, she added, she will initiate formal integration discussions with the party’s candidate for Gyeongbuk governor.
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