Ahn Cheol-soo: "Lee Jun-seok's 'Broker Punishment' Statement Is Not Particularly Meaningful"

Ahn Cheol-soo, the leader of the People Party who declared his candidacy for the presidential election, is being interviewed by Yonhap News at the party headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul on the 2nd.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Soyoung] Ahn Cheol-soo, leader of the People’s Party, expressed that he does not consider Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party’s statement?“If there is anyone acting as a broker, they will be dealt with severely”?to be particularly meaningful.

On the 4th, Ahn appeared on MBC Radio’s 'Kim Jong-bae’s Focus' and said, “Tomorrow, the party leader’s authority will be transferred to the presidential candidate. So if such decisions are to be made, all authority will be held by the presidential candidate,” explaining his stance.

Regarding unification with the People Power Party and the candidacy, he said, “I did not come out thinking about unification. I came out to be the main figure for regime change,” and added, “If the People Power Party truly wants to achieve regime change according to the aspirations of opposition supporters, then if they yield to me, I can overwhelmingly bring about regime change.”

When the host asked, “Who is responsible for the failure of integration with the People Power Party?” he replied, “It is entirely the People Power Party’s responsibility,” and explained, “The very idea of unification is to broaden the support base, isn’t it? But as you can see during the process, many People’s Party members were hurt, and even if physical unification happens, the support base cannot be expanded.”

He added, “There are talks that the People’s Party’s demands for shares were excessive, but in fact, we did not demand any shares.”

Ahn emphasized, “Joint party leadership, joint supreme council formation, and dividing district committee chairpersons by ratio are the shares that can be demanded. But from the beginning, we said that the party leader and supreme council members would all resign and join the People Power Party system. There has never been such a large concession in the history of Korean politics.”

Earlier, on the 3rd, Lee said in an interview with a media outlet, “I don’t know who our candidate will be, but from the day after the decision, we will agree with the candidate and warn that anyone acting as a broker for unification with Ahn Cheol-soo’s side without prior consultation with the party leadership or candidate will be disciplined.”

He continued, “If there is anyone who blindly follows and acts as a broker during the presidential election, that person will be committing an unprecedented act, and I believe such a person will definitely appear. The moment they do, they will be dealt with severely.”

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