Do we like Kim Min-seok?
Our score: 5 out of 10. No harmful words or acts found, but a past political funds conviction, money questions and a rocky stint as party leader keep this in the middle.
Kim Min-seok was the first prime minister of the Lee Jae Myung government, and left the job on 1 July 2026 in a farewell ceremony at the Seoul Government Complex. He was widely expected to chase the party leadership next, and he got it: on 17 August he won the Democratic Party of Korea leadership at a convention in Daejeon.
The scandal that follows him is a political funds case. Reports say he was convicted over 200 million won in illegal funds linked to his 2002 Seoul mayoral run and got a suspended prison term. Ahead of his 2025 confirmation hearing he posted an apology on Facebook and said he had paid all fines and charges, while also calling it largely a politically targeted investigation.
Money questions kept coming at that hearing. A JoongAng Ilbo editorial reported questions over his asset growth and over money he borrowed from a businessman who supplied the funds in the earlier case. Kim said there was a private debt and that he later took out a loan and repaid it in full, and he maintains his innocence on the funding charge.
On the harm test, honestly, the cupboard is bare in both directions. We found no harmful words or acts from him about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the climate. We also found nothing on where he stands on the anti-discrimination bill, which a Progressive Party MP introduced in January 2026 and which conservative Protestant groups have historically fought. That is a gap, not a clean bill of health.
The recent stuff is messier. In July, controversy flared over his absence from the vote to lift martial law, and he went on a YouTube show to say he reached the Assembly but couldn't get into the main chamber before the vote. As leader he has also been criticised for launching task forces without standout results and for a vague agenda, with Kyunghyang Shinmun reporting a record-low party approval of 33%.
On the good side, he has framed his pitch around ordinary people. Before his confirmation hearing he said livelihoods were his priority, and at his farewell he said “politics is to see the future through the eyes of the weak.” That is words, not a track record of sacrifice, so it counts for something but not a lot.