Jun Ji-hye, a reporter at the finance desk of The Korea Times, focuses primarily on economic policy and government agencies, mainly covering the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Ministry of Budget and Planning, the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service. She previously covered financial authorities, including the Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service, and earlier worked on the political, city and business desks, reporting on a wide range of issues.
DP leader, Ahn ally against Saenuri
Rep. Kim Han-gil, left, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party, and Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo leave a restaurant in Yeouido, Seoul, after a one-on-one meeting Friday. They agreed to pressure the ruling Saenuri Party to keep its pledge to ban parties from selecting candidates to run for municipal mayor and council member posts in local elections. / Yonhap
By Jun Ji-hye
Two join forces to scrap party nomination
By Jun Ji-hye
Democratic Party (DP) Chairman Kim Han-gil and Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo agreed Friday to pressure the ruling Saenuri Party to scrap the practice of parties nominating candidates for municipal mayors and councilors in local elections.
They also agreed to press for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the spy agency’s alleged election-meddling. They reached the agreement at a one-on-one lunch meeting at a restaurant in Yeouido.
It was the first meeting between the two since Kim was elected as party chairman at the national convention in May.
“Kim and Ahn agreed to take part in rallies calling for the abolishment of party nominations (in local elections),” said Park Kwang-on, DP spokesperson, who was accompanied by lawyer Geum Tae-sub, spokesman for Ahn’s new political promotion committee, at a joint briefing.
Park said that Kim and Ahn agreed that the ruling party’s “habitual breaking of its promises to the public will be judged by the people.”
“The two also question how the public can trust election pledges made by candidates from the governing side in the June 4 local elections,” said Park.
Kim and Ahn will continue talking to each other about outstanding political issues, he said.
Emerging from the meeting that ran about an hour and a half, the DP chairman said, “We’ve had a lot of useful conversation,” without elaborating.
Ahn declined to comment, saying only that, “Spokesmen will make any announcements.”
Scrapping the top-down nomination system was a campaign pledge common to all three candidates ― the ruling party’s President Park Geun-hye, the DP’s Moon Jae-in, and independent Ahn ― in the lead-up to the presidential poll.
But the governing side recently appeared to oppose the proposal ahead of the local polls, arguing there were some unconstitutional factors that could cause unexpected side effects.
The DP and Ahn are criticizing the Saenuri Party for reversing its promise.
The differences between the rival parties caused delays in bipartisan discussion on how to revise the Election Law in a parliamentary special committee set up last month to reform Korean politics.
The parties earlier agreed in principle to apply the new rules from the June elections, if they are approved by the committee and the full body. The committee is scheduled to shut down at the end of this month, but the rivals plan to extend the period until February.
In the meantime, political observers wonder if Kim and Ahn will talk about combining forces in the local polls in hope of defeating the ruling party in the local elections. That speculation intensified after Ahn officially announced details of his plan to create a new political party in March, three months before the elections.
But the DP chairman tried to quiet that speculation, saying, “This is not a time to talk about that. Developing the nation’s political culture should take priority.”