In the first debate among presidential candidates in this election, Moon Jae-in of the Democratic United Party was the first to walk in, wearing a red stripe tie and black suit.

Independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo arrived three minutes later after a quick run to the bathroom. He wore the same purple tie he had worn last time he met the former presidential chief of staff.

The two men shook hands in front of the cameras but they barely exchanged a word ― not even the usual greetings of politicians.

Both had come accompanied by an entourage of advisers.

Even after each took his seat, the two progressive candidates looked straight ahead, at the cameras.

Ahn’s aides got on stage and checked his microphone. One adviser placed a cushion on Ahn’s seat, while Moon, an ex-special forces veteran, sat unfazed.

“Is this the place we met last time?’ asked Ahn, 50, several minutes before the cameras were to roll. “It feels so different.”

“Things have changed quite a bit,” replied Moon, 59.

Once the debate started, Ahn appeared to be biting his lower lip to force a smile. Moon had the more natural poker face.

The former Seoul National University professor who became a household name by giving lecture tours across the nation at low-ranked colleges recalled how he joined the navy as a medic. He tried to relate his experience with the North Korean attacks on an island off the Yellow Sea and his policy pledges for military veterans.

Moon told a simpler story.

“I was forced into the military after I was arrested for protesting the Yushin regime,” he said, referring to the iron-fisted dictatorship established in the later years of President Park Chung-hee. “My wife came to visit one day. But instead of food, which was what most visitors brought, she brought a whole bucket of baby’s breath flowers. She does not have an older brother ... It was probably the only time in the history of special forces when there were flowers in the barracks.”

It was a debate without an audience. Reporters, supporters, and citizens were barred from the auditorium.

Throngs of police officers guarded the entrance. Riot buses lined up outside the building. There was report that conservative activists might disrupt the scene. But they were nowhere to be found.

The building where the debate was held had been built in honor of Kim Koo, a nationalist leader who advocated independence from Japanese colonial rule, and later, bitterly opposed the division and occupation of the Korean peninsula by Soviet and American troops. He was assassinated in 1949.

The two men from Busan had gathered here before in early November to agree on the framework for unifying their two candidacies. They had met shortly past 6 pm then, enough time to make it into the evening news cycle.

By Samuel Songhoon Lee (songhoon@heraldcorp.com)