Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon and Ahn Cheol-soo's Unification Negotiations in Crisis: "No Agreement Reached" (Comprehensive)

No Agreement After Over 4-Hour Marathon
Public Opinion Polls and Debates Show Large Differences
Loud Arguments at Negotiation Table
Next Negotiation Date Not Set Yet

[Asia Economy Reporters Naju-seok and Park Joon-yi] The unification talks for the Seoul mayoral candidate between the People Power Party and the People’s Party have hit a crisis. The two sides held their third working-level negotiation meeting, but the talks were suspended amid loud arguments. Although discussions were initially planned on debates and polling methods for unification, no agreement was reached.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 12th, the working-level negotiation teams of both parties met at the National Assembly to discuss the unification of the People Power Party’s Seoul mayoral candidate Oh Se-hoon and the People’s Party’s Seoul mayoral candidate Ahn Cheol-soo, but failed to find common ground. The negotiation room was filled with a hostile atmosphere, with loud exchanges.

Lee Tae-gyu, Secretary-General leading the People’s Party’s negotiation team, said after the talks, “The People’s Party wanted to reach a comprehensive agreement quickly due to limited time, while the People Power Party preferred a step-by-step approach. We couldn’t reach an agreement on this issue, so we decided to discuss it again later and ended the meeting.” Earlier, Jeong Yang-seok, Secretary-General of the People Power Party who left the negotiation room, said, “There is nothing to announce,” and apologized.

The two sides met at 11 a.m. and held a marathon meeting for four hours. The day before, both parties agreed to conduct polls on the 17th and 18th, and announce a unified opposition candidate on the last day of candidate registration, the 19th. During this meeting, they planned to discuss a debate before the polls and the polling methods.

The negotiation room saw a hostile atmosphere with loud exchanges. Phrases like “This is not even a concession,” and “Am I really that incompetent?” were heard even outside the negotiation room.

Initially, the People’s Party approached the talks with the intention to finalize the schedule for debates and other events according to the previously agreed timeline. However, the People Power Party reportedly took a strategy to first settle the debate issue and then discuss the polling methods step-by-step.

Although the talks ended in a hostile atmosphere, the negotiations themselves have not collapsed yet. Secretary-General Lee and others expressed their intention to continue negotiations in the future.

However, since the next meeting schedule has not been confirmed, the negotiations remain clouded with uncertainty.

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