Jo Kyung-tae: "It's Not the Time to Bring Ahn Cheol-soo... We Need to Form a New Leadership Through an Early Party Convention"

Jokyungtae, Chairman of the Busan Election Committee of the United Future Party. / Busan = Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@

[Asia Economy reporters Lee Ji-eun and Kim Hye-min] Cho Kyung-tae, Supreme Council Member of the United Future Party, predicted the need for a swift transition to a countermeasure committee system and the formation of leadership. Regarding rumors of recruiting Ahn Cheol-soo, leader of the People’s Party, he drew a line, saying, "This is not the time for that."

On the morning of the 17th, Cho met with reporters in front of the floor leader’s office at the National Assembly and said, "Right now, it is more important to wisely and prudently overcome the internal crisis we are facing."

He explained, "If the scope widens now, there could be confusion, and it might lead to strange factional fights or excessive presidential competition. Bringing in outsiders doesn’t seem appropriate at this time."

Cho said, "We need to quickly form a countermeasure committee that can handle the situation with clear direction," adding, "We need to decide whether to call it an emergency committee or a provisional countermeasure committee."

He said, "Because we need to hold a party convention quickly to form a new leadership and overcome the crisis, we shouldn’t prolong the emergency committee system like in the past. The opinions of newly elected members are important, but it would be better to have a provisional countermeasure committee aimed at quickly establishing a new leadership system."

He also expressed the view that the party convention should be held early. He said, "Realistically, the sooner the party convention can be held, the better. It was originally scheduled for August, but it should be moved up."

Regarding the reinstatement of independent lawmakers, he said, "Party members have quite divided opinions on this, so we will work to maintain good cooperative relations," and added, "We will also communicate well with former leader Hong Joon-pyo."

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