Yoon Fails to Secure Kim's Firm Acceptance as 'General Election Committee Chair' Despite Dinner Persuasion (Update)

Yoon Seok-yeol "Kim Jong-in to Take More Time as General Election Committee Chair"
Kim Jong-in "No Definitive Decision Made"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Naju-seok and Park Joon-yi] Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate, and Kim Jong-in, former emergency committee chairman of the People Power Party, held a meeting to discuss the formation of the presidential campaign committee, but they failed to reach a clear agreement on Kim's joining the campaign committee. Candidate Yoon plans to leave the position of the overall campaign committee chairman vacant for now and announce personnel at the headquarters chief level.

On the 24th, Candidate Yoon met with former Chairman Kim and Kwon Seong-dong, secretary-general of the People Power Party, at a restaurant in downtown Seoul. After the dinner meeting, Candidate Yoon said, "(Former Chairman Kim) said he would help," but added, "He said he needs more time regarding taking the position of overall campaign committee chairman."

Candidate Yoon stated, "It seems (former Chairman Kim) said he needs a little more time," and added, "It is difficult for me to speak about this concretely and publicly."

Earlier, former Chairman Kim, who arrived first, said, "There can be no special result, and I told the candidate that I must maintain my current position." He continued, "It is not because I have any special disagreement with the candidate, but I said that if there is noise within the campaign committee, it cannot be allowed. We must start well from the beginning because if unnecessary noise arises midway and various stories come out, it could decisively affect the election. Therefore, I suggested that we properly organize things in advance and start cleanly."

Regarding accepting the overall campaign committee chairman position, former Chairman Kim said, "I did not make any definitive statements."

Previously, Candidate Yoon pushed for a campaign committee personnel plan centered on appointing former Chairman Kim as the overall campaign committee chairman. However, issues arose over appointments such as Kim Byung-joon as standing overall campaign committee chairman and Kim Han-gil as chairman of the New Era Preparation Committee, leading to turbulence. On this day as well, Secretary-General Kwon and Kim Jae-won, a senior member of the People Power Party, visited former Chairman Kim's office to persuade him.

Candidate Yoon is expected to announce headquarters chief-level appointments on the 25th without achieving the outcome of former Chairman Kim joining the campaign committee. Candidate Yoon said, "I think we need to announce the overall headquarters chiefs at tomorrow's supreme council meeting."

According to reports, the following appointments have been made: Representative Joo Ho-young as head of the campaign organization headquarters, former Representative Kim Sung-tae as head of the functional headquarters, former Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong as head of the policy headquarters, People Power Party leader Lee Jun-seok as head of the public relations and media headquarters, Secretary-General Kwon as head of the party affairs support headquarters, and Representative Kwon Young-se as head of the overall special advisory group.

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