Ruling party targets first-half 2027 referendum in renewed constitutional push

South Korea's ruling Democratic Party has opened a new constitutional-revision campaign with the goal of holding a national referendum in the first half of 2027. The party launched a constitutional-revision task force on September 20, two days after President Lee Jae-myung said he had no intention of seeking another term through a constitutional change. Party leader Kim Min-seok said the president's statement removed what the party saw as a political obstacle to restarting talks.

A renewed push after the term-limit dispute

Task-force chief Kim Tae-nyeon said the party would try to negotiate with the opposition and make the revision process public. The group has not limited the discussion to a single institutional change. Democratic Party officials have mentioned the presidential system, political institutions, social rights and language recognizing the May 18 Democratic Uprising and the Busan-Masan Democratic Protests as areas that could be discussed. The party says it wants a referendum before the next general-election cycle dominates negotiations.

Agreement is far from assured. The People Power Party has continued to raise questions about the president's position on term limits and has not committed to the ruling party's timetable. That leaves the initiative dependent on negotiations across parties rather than on the launch of the Democratic Party task force alone. A constitutional referendum cannot be produced by one party's internal process, so the coming months will show whether the announcement develops into a negotiated package.

The new push follows an unsuccessful attempt earlier this year to move a narrower constitutional amendment through the National Assembly. That proposal included language on the May 18 and Busan-Masan democratic movements and stronger legislative controls over emergency martial law, but the vote was not completed after the opposition boycotted it. The earlier failure illustrates how even provisions with long-running public debate can stall when the parties disagree over timing or scope.

For now, the most concrete commitment is the ruling party's target of a referendum in the first half of next year. The substance remains open and the opposition's participation remains uncertain. Progress will be visible through formal cross-party talks, agreement on the subjects to be amended and a timetable that can survive changes in political strategy.