Nominee Kim Moon-soo pushes back against PPP demand to immediately unite with Han Duck-soo
An existing rift within the conservative bloc widened Thursday, with People Power Party presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo resisting mounting pressure from party leadership to swiftly unify his candidacy with former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.
Kim and Han clashed over coming together during a second, follow-up meeting held Thursday evening at a coffee shop in the National Assembly in western Seoul, exposing internal strains within the bloc. The talks, which began at 4:30 p.m., wrapped up an hour later without any meaningful progress on the thorny issue of their consolidation.
Kim, who won the presidential nomination of the ruling party just last week, criticized Han for pushing for a candidacy unification after he won the party primary.
"I've never said I won't merge candidacy," Kim told Han at Thursday's meeting, which was open to the press. "But why have you decided to appear to (me) at a time that I have already finished the People Power Party primary race, paid my money (for campaigning) and completed my process, then ask why I'm not keeping my promises?"
Han shot back, saying, “You bear responsibility” to agree on a candidacy merger deal before Sunday, adding, “We must follow the will of the people and party members.”
Han, who resigned as prime minister and acting president last week to launch his presidential bid, continued to urge Kim to "swiftly unify" with him before Sunday’s deadline for official candidate registration.
Thursday's talks were a follow-up to the first, closed-door meeting between Kim and Han held Wednesday evening, which also ended without an agreement. It also came hours after a surprise press conference held by Kim in the morning where he urged party leadership to stop pressuring him to come to terms with Han.
“(The move by the ruling party leadership) is an act of forcefully attempting to change the party’s presidential candidate and drag me down,” Kim told reporters.
He said he would not participate in a scheduled televised debate with Han in the afternoon, calling it an event “unilaterally arranged by the party.” Instead, Kim proposed holding a televised debate next week on Wednesday, followed by public opinion polls on Thursday and Friday to determine a unified candidate for the conservative bloc.
“I, Kim Moon-soo, am a legitimate presidential candidate. I am a candidate who knows how to fight — and I will win,” he said.
Kim accused the party leadership of forming an election preparation committee for the benefit of an independent candidate, Han, who had not registered for the party’s primary.
“I would like to ask candidate Han: Were you aware of these efforts by the party when you chose not to join the primary?” Kim posed.
He warned that the ongoing push among the main conservative party to unify Kim's campaign with Han amounts to a forced replacement of the nominee and an attempt to oust him. “This forced unification could lead to legal disputes,” he said.
People Power Party Floor Leader Kweon Seong-dong criticized the former labor minister’s refusal to heed the party leadership’s push to merge their candidacies, soon after Kim’s morning press conference. Kweon began a hunger strike the previous day, joined by other party elders, urging Kim to come to terms with Han before Sunday and opposing his proposal to seek a merger next week after a TV debate and polling.
“(Kim’s latest moves) are a petty attempt to protect his position as the presidential candidate – it’s pathetic,” Kweon said during an emergency party leadership meeting in the morning.
Kweon also pointed to the results of an intraparty survey carried out the previous day, in which 82.8 percent of the 256,549 People Power Party members who responded said that Kim’s candidacy merger with Han was “necessary.” Of the 212,477 respondents who said the merger was necessary, 86.7 percent said that unifying the two candidacies must be completed before May 11, which is the deadline for official candidate registration with the National Election Commission.
“Over 80 percent of the party members have ordered (Kim) to unify his candidacy, and before the deadline for official candidate registration — Kim just needs to follow (the orders),” Kweon said.
In response to Kim’s proposal to hold a separate televised debate next week and conduct a public opinion poll, Han expressed his disagreement through his campaign.
“We strongly reaffirm our proposal to unify the candidacy before May 11,” Lee Jung-hyun, a spokesperson for Han’s campaign, said in a press briefing. “(Kim) must carry out his promise with the people to unify his candidacy.”
Han, while visiting the birthplace of former President Park Chung-hee in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, on Thursday, warned Kim "to keep his promise" to unify candidacies with him. Failure to do so would be "disrespecting those who are concerned about South Korea's future, economy and the livelihoods of the people," he told a group of reporters outside the venue.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
flylikekite@heraldcorp.com
