Software entrepreneur-turned-professor Ahn Cheol-soo is in the process of securing supporters who can lend assistance if he opts to run for president, an advisor said Wednesday.

“Ahn is meeting a lot of people, exchanging views with those he meets, and through such efforts forming ties that could assist him (down the line),” said Keum Tae-sup, a lawyer who has close ties with the 50-year-old dean of the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology at Seoul National University (SNU).

He claimed in a radio talk show aired earlier in the day, that many people have expressed a desire to join Ahn and stressed that if the dean makes up his mind to compete for the country‘s top elected office, he will be ready to fulfill his role.

On when the dean will make up his mind, Keum said there is no way to give a set date, although he did point out that Ahn wants to take such an important step after he has fully communicated his views and earned the understanding of the people.

He added that Ahn, who founded AhnLab, the country’s largest computer anti-virus company, plans to follow his own schedule in a reasonable manner.

The lawyer, in addition, said that Ahn is not the kind of person to be easily swayed by changes in public opinion when making decisions.

Ahn is the only contender able to compete on an even keel with Rep. Park Geun-hye, the presidential hopeful for the ruling Saenuri Party, but the latest polls show him trailing the five-term lawmaker by a small margin.

The advisor, meanwhile, said because Ahn has to make known his views on policies and undergo public screening, any decision on running for president will not be put off much longer.

This remark comes as some political watchers have urged Ahn, who has never held a public office, to make known his intentions as soon as possible.

Such a move they claimed could help relieve political uncertainties and give the public a chance to check Ahn‘s past and see if he is suited to lead the country.

Related to checking Ahn’s past, a professor at SNU told Yonhap News Agency that he resigned from a committee set up to see if the dean and his wife Kim Mi-kyung were eligible for life-long tenure at the university because he did not want to waste his time acting as a rubber stamp. Kim was appointed as a full professor along with her husband in 2011.

Both Ahn and Kim taught at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon, 160 kilometers south of Seoul, before coming to SNU.

“In order for a person to get tenure he or she must have carried out extensive research and published papers, but both Ahn and his wife did not meet this requirement,” the professor, who declined to be identified, said.

“It seems political considerations were taken to give the appointments instead of basing decisions on academic knowhow,” he claimed. School sources admitted that Kim was given tenure after a rare second meeting of the committee that was barely approved in a vote of committee members.

On the questions raised, sources close to Ahn said if there is any controversy, it is up to SNU to make the explanation. Ahn has said he was invited by the school to teach, and that Kim as an expert in pathology was picked because she had earned diverse experience in the past and during her studies abroad. (Yonhap News)

　<한글 기사>

“안철수와 같이 할 사람 만들어지고 있다” 금태섭 변호사 전해..“출마한다면 준비돼 있어” 안철수 서울대 융합과학기술대학원장측 금태섭 변호사는 29일 안 원장의 대선 출마와 관련해 “많은 사람을 만나고 의견을 교환하는 과정에서 같이할 사람이 만들어지고 있고, 많은 사람이 뜻을 함께 하려고 한다”고 말했다.

금 변호사는 이날 TBS 라디오 `열린아침 송정애입니다‘에 출연해 “만약에 (출마를) 한다면 준비는 돼 있다고 생각한다”면서 이같이 밝혔다.

그는 안 원장의 출마 시기와 관련해 “안 원장은 책을 통해 밝혔듯이 국민에게 자신의 생각을 알리고 말씀을 듣는 중이기 때문에 국민과의 교감을 통해 어떤 결정을 하려고 한다”면서 “특정한 날짜를 말씀 드리기는 그렇다”고 말했다.

그는 또 “(안 원장이) 자신이 짠 계획에 따라 죽 나가는 것이 합리적이지, 지지율에 따라 조급하게 결정짓는 것은 책임 있는 태도가 아니라고 생각한다”면서 “국민에게 충분한 정보를 주고 신상이나 정책 문제에 대해 알 수 있도록 해야 하기 때문에 (출마 결정이) 늦어지지 않도록 결심해서 말할 것”이라고 강조했다.

출마 방식에 대해서는 “여러 가지 다양한 말씀을 하는 분들이 있어서 그런 이야기를 충분히 듣고 고민하고 있다”고 말했다.

금 변호사는 안 원장에 대한 경찰의 사찰 의혹 보도와 관련, “경찰이 사찰을 했다면 정말 정부 자체가 도덕적으로 불감증에 걸린 것 아닌가 싶다”면서 “정치권이나 정부에서 적극적으로 나서서 진상을 규명해줘야 한다”고 주장했다.

그러면서 새누리당 이준석 전 비대위원이 안 원장을 겨냥, “룸살롱 기사에 대해 징징대면 안 된다”고 언급한 데 대해 “언론에서 제기한 문제를 해명하는 것인데 그것을 가지고 `징징댄다’고 하는 것은 맞지 않다”고 비판했다.

금 변호사는 정치쇄신특별위원장으로 새누리당에 합류, 야권 및 시민단체로부터 비판을 받고 있는 안대희 전 대법관에 대해선 “그분의 선택으로, 법조인으로서 내가 존경하는 선배”라며 “새누리당이나 민주당이나, 보수나 진보나 훌륭한 사람들이 가서 잘해주기를 국민의 한 사람으로서 바란다”고 말해 눈길을 끌었다.


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