Park Ji-won: "Ahn Cheol-soo Will Aim for Presidency Based on Pro-Park Faction"

Ahn Cheol-soo, Leader of the People Party Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoon Shin-won] On the 11th, Park Ji-won, a member of the Minsaeng Party, predicted that Ahn Cheol-soo, the leader of the People’s Party, would join forces with the pro-Park faction aiming to become the next presidential candidate.

On the same day, Park appeared on MBC Radio's "Kim Jong-bae's Focus" and argued that if Han Seon-kyo, the representative of the Future Korea Party, a proportional party of the United Future Party, went down to Daegu to meet Ahn, the possibility of compromise would be high. He explained, "As Ahn resumed his political activities, he is taking steps toward conservatism. Ahn will judge that compromising with Representative Han is the way to become the presidential candidate from the conservative camp."

He continued, "Since Representative Han is the head of the proportional party of the United Future Party, he is a complete pro-Park supporter. However, as both pro-Park and pro-Lee factions have been largely excluded from nominations, Representative Han is a person with considerable determination, so I expect that while maintaining some formality, he will grant many nominations to the pro-Park faction. In that sense, Ahn, who currently views Representative Hwang Kyo-ahn as a competitor, will have aligned interests."

When asked if Ahn would try to make the pro-Park faction his internal party support base on the premise of joining forces with Representative Han, he replied, "I think so."

Park also said, "Representative Han has strong loyalty to Park Geun-hye and will somewhat accommodate the pro-Park faction, and Ahn aims to seek the path to the presidency by moving toward conservatism, so I think he could clash with Representative Hwang."

Earlier, on the 9th, Representative Han said in an interview with a media outlet, "I will soon go down to Daegu to propose unification to Ahn. If Ahn agrees, we could work together as co-leaders of the unified party or even hand over the leadership position entirely."

He added, "Since the nomination process will be completed on the 16th, I will meet Ahn in Daegu today (the 9th) or tomorrow (the 10th) to reach a conclusion. If Ahn had not started medical volunteer work, we would have met earlier, but the schedule has been somewhat delayed, so there is not much time left."

However, Ahn rejected the proposal in a statement on the same day, saying, "I am volunteering for medical services in Daegu, so I am not in a position or situation to meet anyone politically," and added, "I will firmly continue on the path of pragmatic centrist politics."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.