The ruling Saenuri Party on Monday stepped up its offensive against independent presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo by criticizing his election pledges on North Korea and accused him of colluding with the opposition camp in his bid to win December's election.
The 50-year-old computer software mogul-turned-politician announced his first set of official election pledges on Sunday following months of criticism that he lacked concrete policies.
On Seoul's relations with Pyongyang, he said he would seek parliamentary approval for major inter-Korean deals so as to ensure they survive changes in government. He also called on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons.
Speaking during a Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly, Rep. Shim Jae-chul of the Saenuri Party said Ahn's election pledges still lacked detail and showed he was unfit for the top elected office.
"Ahn said dialogue is key to the (sinking of the) Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island shelling and praised the Sunshine Policy that ended in failure," the lawmaker said. "(These are) dangerous views on national security for a presidential candidate."
South Korea accuses the North of sinking its warship Cheonan in March 2010 as well as the artillery attack on the border island of Yeonpyeong in November of the same year. A total of 50 South Koreans, mostly soldiers, were killed in the two attacks. Pyongyang denies responsibility for the warship sinking, while claiming the artillery attack was a retaliatory move against Seoul's military drills.
The Sunshine Policy was a cornerstone of late President Kim Dae-jung's engagement policy toward North Korea, which led to the first-ever inter-Korean summit in 2000.
The attacks on Ahn comes as the conservative ruling party's presidential candidate, Park Geun-hye, has faced stiff challenges in public opinion surveys from Ahn and Moon Jae-in, the presidential candidate of the main opposition Democratic United Party.
Moon and Ahn, both regarded as liberals, are widely expected to boost their chances against Park by unifying their candidacies and running on a single opposition ticket in the Dec. 19 polls. If they both run, they would split the liberal vote and probably hand victory to the conservatives.
"Unifying candidacies is old politics and a form of collusion," Lee Jung-hyun, the head of communications in Park's election camp, said during the meeting. "If the second and third-ranking candidates try to win the election by colluding, it would distort the public sentiment and make a travesty of politics."
Related to seeking a single candidate to run against Park, Kim Ho-ki, a college professor working for Ahn's election camp, said the two liberal contenders could start discussing unifying candidacies at the end of this month.
He stressed, however, that Ahn is more interested in first seeing the DUP carry out sweeping political reforms.
The 50-year-old over the weekend said that for him to agree on a single opposition ticket, there must be broad public support and understanding along with support from experts. (YOnhap)