Kim Jong-in "Never said I met Ahn... Allow Kim Tae-ho's reinstatement"

Kim Jong-in, Emergency Response Committee Chairman of the People Power Party, is drinking water after finishing his speech at the Emergency Response Committee meeting held at the National Assembly on the 7th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy reporters Lee Ji-eun and Lim Chun-han] Kim Jong-in, the Emergency Committee Chairman of the People Power Party, responded to questions about whether he had met with Ahn Cheol-soo, the leader of the People’s Party, by saying, "I have never said that we met." He also stated that the reinstatement of lawmaker Kim Tae-ho was approved at the meeting held that day.

After holding an emergency committee meeting at the National Assembly on the morning of the 7th, Chairman Kim told reporters regarding reports of a meeting, "I have never said that we met."

On that day, a media outlet reported that Chairman Kim and Leader Ahn had a meeting on the 7th, followed by reports that the two had already met on the 5th. Chairman Kim dismissed the former as a "complete false report," but regarding the latter, he took an ambiguous stance, saying, "Don’t ask me, ask the person who said they met me."

When asked if there was a scheduled meeting with Leader Ahn, he said, "There will be no meeting in the future," adding, "If we were to meet, we could, but I don’t think there will be a request from (Leader Ahn’s) side."

Regarding unification of candidates, he said, "Leader Ahn first said that candidate unification should be done, and we also clearly stated our position that candidate unification should happen," adding, "If the appropriate time comes, it can be done then."

At the emergency committee meeting that day, the issue of allowing lawmaker Kim’s reinstatement was discussed. Chairman Kim explained, "It has been several months since he applied for reinstatement, so today we decided to allow it," adding, "He was a member of our party, and since the election ended and some time has passed, and it has been several months since he applied for reinstatement, we accepted it today."

Regarding the reinstatement of former Liberty Korea Party leader Hong Joon-pyo, he said, "He has never thought about or applied for reinstatement so far," and questioned, "Isn’t it unnecessary for us to talk about someone like that ourselves?"

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