Ahn Cheol-soo: "Time for Unification Has Passed... No Contact from Yoon Seok-yeol"

Ahn Cheol-soo Draws a Line on 'Possibility of Unification with Yoon'
Responds "Haven't Heard" to Democratic Party's Political Reform Proposal
"Not Regime Change but Only Replacement of Deep-rooted Evils Continues... Many Have a Sense of the Problem"

From the left, Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party presidential candidate, and Ahn Cheol-soo, the People’s Party presidential candidate
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyun-joo] Ahn Cheol-soo, the presidential candidate of the People’s Party who had declared the failure of candidate unification, repeatedly dismissed the possibility of unification with Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate of the People Power Party.

On the 24th, after a meeting of the People’s Party Central Election Committee held at the National Assembly, Ahn told reporters, when asked, "If the People Power Party undergoes a public opinion poll primary, is there a possibility of unification?" that "The time has already passed. That is why I declared the failure." This is interpreted as drawing a line against the view that Ahn might still leave room for unification. He had said in an interview with Busan Ilbo the day before, "I don’t think they are willing to accept my proposal (public opinion poll primary) even now, but if they do, I don’t know."

When asked, "Can we assume there will be no more meetings with candidate Yoon?" he briefly replied, "I have not received any contact."

Ahn also said he had "not heard anything yet" about the "Political Reform Plan for National Unity" announced by the Democratic Party. On the same day, Song Young-gil, leader of the Democratic Party, held a press conference at the Yeouido party headquarters and announced that to guarantee "multi-party coalition politics," they would simultaneously promote electoral reform introducing a mixed-member proportional representation system and regional proportional representation system, along with a "national unity constitutional amendment" to introduce a four-year presidential term with one re-election and a runoff election system for the presidential election.

Regarding this, there has been an interpretation in political circles that the Democratic Party is considering policy alliances with opposition candidates excluding the People Power Party, such as Ahn Cheol-soo and Sim Sang-jung of the Justice Party.

When asked, "The Democratic Party sees this reform plan as consistent with the political change Ahn has often talked about," Ahn responded, "If they have such convictions, shouldn’t they just implement it that way?"

Regarding the observation that "as the election nears its end, votes are consolidating around the two major parties," he said, "I trust the judgment of the people," adding, "I think there are many people who are aware of the problem that our country is falling behind as only ‘deep-rooted corruption replacement’ continues instead of genuine regime change."

Ahn continued, "There are many people who are concerned that only ‘deep-rooted corruption replacement’ happens between the two major parties instead of regime change, causing our country to fall behind," emphasizing, "I feel on the ground that the public’s desire to change this in this election is growing stronger."

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