People Power Party (PPP) presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo and the party's interim leader clashed again Friday on a move to merge campaigns with former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, marking the latest showdown within the conservative party ahead of the June 3 vote.
The clash between Kim and the PPP's interim leader, Kwon Young-se, came shortly before the conservative party was set to unveil its result of two-day opinion polls about favorable ratings between Kim and Han.
"The forced merger pushed by the party leadership is nothing more than an attempt to remove me and make an independent candidate the party's presidential nominee," Kim told a meeting with PPP lawmakers. "I cannot accept this."
It was the first time that Kim attended such a meeting since he won the party's nomination earlier this month.
In response, Kwon expressed disappointment over Kim's remarks, saying a "true leader, especially one aspiring to become a great leader, must be willing to sacrifice his personal interests."
The polls came as Kim, former labor minister, has demanded the PPP's leadership stop forcing him to unify his candidacy with Han, an independent preliminary presidential candidate, demonstrating a growing rift within the conservative party with the presidential election just 25 days away.
Kim and Han held their second round of talks Thursday to try to unify their candidacies, but the talks ended without an agreement.
The June 3 presidential election is being held to pick a successor to ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed martial law bid, with the PPP still divided over its stance about Yoon's ouster.
The opinion polls will be based on a combination of 50 percent party member votes and 50 percent public opinion polling.
Amid ongoing tensions, Kim canceled his campaign stops in the southeastern cities of Daegu and Busan, and is likely to focus on response measures to the PPP leadership and Han's push for the merger.
Since being selected as the presidential candidate, Kim has been at odds with the party leadership, which has been pushing him to unify his campaign with Han.
Han has insisted that the merger be finalized by May 11 to ensure that one of them can run as the PPP candidate without dividing the conservative votes to better counter Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung, who is leading opinion polls.
Han said he will not register for the presidential race if there is no agreement with the PPP on unifying candidacies.
Kim, however, proposed that he and Han each campaign for a week, before holding a televised debate and public opinion polls to decide on the candidacy next week.
Late Friday, Kim and Han's campaign representatives briefly held negotiations on potentially unifying their presidential candidacies, but the talks collapsed over a disagreement on terms over polling.
This followed after a court dismissed Kim's petition seeking recognition of his candidacy status and prevention of the PPP's pressure to merge with Han.
