Lee Jun-seok, presidential candidate of the minor conservative New Reform Party, holds a campaign rally at Chonnam National University in Gwangju, some 270 kilometers southwest of Seoul, on Monday. (Yonhap)
Lee Jun-seok, presidential candidate of the minor conservative New Reform Party, holds a campaign rally at Chonnam National University in Gwangju, some 270 kilometers southwest of Seoul, on Monday. (Yonhap)

The presidential candidate of the minor New Reform Party, Lee Jun-seok, said Tuesday he has "no intention" of merging candidacies with People Power Party candidate Kim Moon-soo, drawing a line about a possible candidacy merger with the election just two weeks away.

Lee made the remarks during an interview with SBS radio amid speculation over a potential merger of their candidacies to challenge Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung, the campaign's front-runner who holds about 50 percent in recent opinion polls.

"The process and procedure itself would appear very old-fashioned, so I have no intention of doing it whatsoever," Lee said.

When asked whether he was willing to consider the merger if key aides of former President Yoon Suk Yeol offers an apology, Lee said, "I have never set such preconditions, nor do I expect an apology."

Lee, a former PPP leader, left the PPP due to long-running feuds with Yoon and his loyalists in the conservative party, and founded the NRP last year.

"Unless we garner votes from the youth and bring down Lee Jae-myung's approval ratings from above the 45 percent range, all else is meaningless," he said, stressing that Kim cannot beat the DP's Lee.

A Realmeter survey showed Monday that the DP's Lee was leading Kim with 50.2 percent support against Kim's 35.6 percent. The NRP's Lee came in third with 8.7 percent. (Yonhap)