Translation result.
Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Dong‑yeon rejected the “anti‑Lee” label and emphasized that he is a pro‑Lee executive who delivers results and supports President Lee Jae‑myung’s success. He also acknowledged that neglecting aides during the gubernatorial campaign four years ago reflected arrogance, and said he has since humbled himself.
In a March 13 interview on the YouTube channel “Speaks,” Kim said he wanted to counter perceptions in some political circles that he is anti‑Lee, declaring, “I am a pro‑Lee who gets things done.”
He said he teamed up with Lee during the 2022 presidential campaign and worked tirelessly for victory, noting that campaign staff often told him they worked harder than his own election team. He added that they continued to act as a team after the primary to help elect Lee president.
Since Lee’s election, Kim said, Gyeonggi Province has positioned itself as the new government’s primary national partner. He pledged that Gyeonggi would account for 2 percentage points of the central government’s 3% potential growth target.
Addressing allegations that he excluded pro‑Lee figures who had supported him after his election, Kim offered a candid reflection.
He said he was a political novice after 34 years as a bureaucrat and had only been in politics for ten months. By prioritizing bureaucratic rationality and efficiency, he said, he failed to demonstrate the comradeship expected of a politician.
Kim singled out former Minjoo Research Institute deputy director Kim Yong and apologized, saying, “Deputy Director Kim Yong served as a chair and helped devotedly in the last local election. I want to offer a sincere, formal apology.”
He acknowledged that he had been arrogant in assuming the dramatic victory stemmed from his own experience and vowed to act with a stronger sense of comradeship going forward.
Describing the party primary — a decisive moment on the road to re‑election — as a grueling process, he nevertheless expressed confidence.
Kim identified Rep. Chu Mi‑ae and Rep. Han Jun‑ho as his principal rivals, calling Chu “the party’s reform asset” and Han “an asset for the future.” He said he will pursue a policy‑focused primary to demonstrate that the Democratic Party’s internal democracy is alive through robust competition among strong candidates.
On his administration’s record in the eighth elected term, Kim said the provincial government attracted more than 100 trillion KRW (about $75 billion) in investment and resolved long‑standing issues such as the Yongin semiconductor cluster’s power supply problem and unpaid allowances for firefighters.
He also argued that, during President Yoon Suk‑yeol’s administration, Gyeonggi acted as a de facto “government‑in‑exile” by choosing expansionary fiscal measures over the central government’s austerity stance and by boosting budgets for climate response and research and development (R&D).
Kim framed his campaign goal as ensuring the success of the Lee Jae‑myung administration. “Given the president’s threefold leadership of practicality, competence, and performance,” he said, “a results‑oriented president needs a results‑oriented governor.”
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