Independent presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo on Thursday dismissed the main opposition party's calls for a single party-centered candidate to represent the liberal camp, saying the party should first win the trust of the people.
On Tuesday, Democratic United Party (DUP) chairman Lee Hae-chan discredited Ahn's bid by claiming the former software entrepreneur would not be able to win December's election without joining a party.
The comments came amid growing speculation that Ahn and DUP candidate Moon Jae-in will eventually merge their bids to boost their chances against the conservative ruling party candidate Park Geun-hye.
"I think it's absurd to talk about a party-centered candidate after all this time," Ahn, the 50-year-old founder of Korea's largest anti-virus software firm, AhnLab, said during a lecture at a college in Cheongju, about 137 kilometers south of Seoul.
"If our political system was healthy and fulfilled its role of tackling social issues, one could question (whether an independent president could run a country), but as I'm sure everyone would agree, we are not in such a situation," he said.
The popular former college professor blamed the political establishment for disappointing the public and stressed his earlier calls for sweeping political reforms.
"I also don't think it would be good to have an independent president. It would be good (for the president) to belong to a party," he said. "If parties took painful steps to reform themselves and the public started to think they can trust politics, the people would push me to join a party."
As part of his campaign trail across the central Chungcheong region, Ahn also visited the new administrative hub of Sejong and met with space and aviation experts at a state-run institute in Daejeon.
With two weeks left before the scheduled launch of the country's first-ever space rocket, he stressed the importance of science and technology and encouraged scientists to learn from their failures.
The planned launch would be the third attempt to put the rocket into space following two previous attempts that ended in failure. (Yonhap)