Oh Se-hoon, Won Hee-ryong, Ahn Cheol-soo... Opposition Potential Candidates Expanding Their Stride

Oh Se-hoon: "I am a nuclear option card player"
Won Hee-ryong at the first-term lawmakers' meeting: "Anti-Moon coalition"
Ahn Cheol-soo intensifies opposition realignment efforts

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Opposition presidential hopefuls are stretching their wings. They are positioning themselves as alternative forces by sharply criticizing the government and ruling party's failures in North Korea policy and real estate policy. The political world is focused on how much popular support they can secure by leveraging the ruling party's consecutive mistakes.

Former Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon stated at the Future United Party's freshman lawmakers' study meeting "Myeongbulheojeon Bosuda" held at the National Assembly Members' Office Building on the 22nd, "I am not a nuclear armament advocate. I am merely a politician emphasizing that South Korea has the capability and will to develop nuclear weapons," calling himself a "nuclear option card proponent." He added, "Let's proactively engage in inter-Korean civilian exchanges. It's just that North Korea refuses," emphasizing, "The ruling class and the common people in the North are different. Let's distinguish between them and agree not to be stingy when it comes to taking care of people's livelihoods."

Former Mayor Oh said, "It is necessary to preemptively clarify the conscription and volunteer military systems that progressive and left-wing parties such as the Democratic Party and the Justice Party will bring up in major elections," adding, "From now on, conscription and volunteer military systems will become meaningless. The nature of warfare is changing fundamentally with robots and artificial intelligence (AI). We must clearly state that labor-intensive military composition is no longer necessary." On the 14th, he also agreed with Kim Jong-in, the Future United Party's Emergency Committee Chairman, who proposed the 'post-construction sale system' as a solution to real estate issues, saying, "Let's adopt it as party policy."

Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong is also showing a broad and active presence on the central political stage. On the 15th, Governor Won gave a lecture to the Future United Party's freshman lawmakers, presenting a ruling plan through the establishment of an 'anti-Moon (anti-Moon Jae-in) coalition' that transcends camps and ideologies. He said, "We must approach the presidential election with a broad political strategy that is not confined to the fences of conservative and progressive but can join hands with anyone except the 'true Moon supporters'."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

People's Party leader Ahn Cheol-soo is intensifying moves to reorganize the opposition. On the 22nd, the People's Party held a policy seminar called 'On(on) National Study Room,' where they attended a lecture titled 'Is Creative Destruction and Innovation Possible in the Opposition?' Ahn said, "If each opposition party innovates competitively by sometimes learning and adopting better ideas from other parties or on their own, the political landscape and power will naturally be reorganized in the direction the people want," adding, "Within that, regime change to move toward the best outcome will also be possible."

Former Liberty Korea Party leader Hong Joon-pyo is focusing on issue fighting through social networking services (SNS). On the 20th, Hong criticized, "Persisting with a wrong North Korea policy despite knowing it is deceived by a disguised peace policy, and stubbornly adhering to a regulation-centered economic and real estate policy just to be faithful to left-wing ideology, is a conspiracy aimed at turning the country into an experimental ground for left-wing ideology."

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