Ahn Cheol-soo courts Yoo Seong-min

By Rachel Lee

People’s Party presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo is trying to woo Bareun Party candidate Yoo Seong-min, asking Yoo to take charge of economic policies if Ahn becomes president.

At a press conference in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, Thursday, Ahn said the two candidates have almost the same economic policies, including measures to tackle various problems in the country.

“I am interested in Yoo’s pledge to restrict overtime work and work-related use of social media,” the People’s Party nominee said. “I am not going to just copy somebody’s pledges if I really want to use them. I will instead push ahead with them.”

Ahn has laid out his vision to launch a coalition government with reformative figures regardless of their political lines.

Along with the Bareun Party nominee, Ahn praised other politicians he believed were “forward-looking,” including Justice Party candidate Sim Sang-jung, South Chungcheong Governor An Hee-jung and Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon.

The country can step forward when all rational and reformist forces are joined, Ahn said, excluding those who stood in the way of the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye and factional hegemonic forces.

If Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) candidate Moon Jae-in becomes president, the country could “exhaust all national energy and be ruined after five years of conflict,” Ahn said.

“Support for Moon has fallen to 30-something percent for this reason, which means more than 60 percent of the voters in the country do not support Moon. If elected, tragedy will follow in the first year of his presidency.”

Ahn has believed he was the only competent candidate who could defeat Moon.

Ahn also criticized the Moon camp for imitating some of Ahn’s remarks, calling their copying job “fast as light.”

Targeting rightist Liberty Korea Party (LKP) candidate Hong Joon-pyo, Ahn believed Hong’s aim was “not to win the election but to acquire the opposition parties’ vested rights by gaining 15 percent of the votes.”

Ahn also said he was sure Daegu citizens would already know by now that Hong has been campaigning to establish his political position, not for the Gyeongsang provinces, the traditional home ground of the conservative bloc.

The People’s Party candidate further said Hong was not the right candidate to represent the conservatives, who respect the value of the constitution and believe the country should have dignity.

“If you want to keep conservative values, Yoo is a more suitable candidate,” Ahn said.