Sung Il-jong "Ahn Cheol-soo will enter the presidential race... I expect more advanced discussions to come soon"

Delay in Legitimate Discussions Blamed on People Party

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] Seong Il-jong, Emergency Response Committee member of the People Power Party, predicted that Ahn Cheol-soo, leader of the People Power Party, will run in next year's presidential election.

Sung Il-jong, Chairman of the Legislative Review Subcommittee of the Political Affairs Committee, is presiding over the second Legislative Review Subcommittee meeting of the Political Affairs Committee related to the Anti-Interference Bill held at the National Assembly on the 13th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

On the 20th, Seong appeared on MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' and responded to the question, "Do you expect Leader Ahn to enter the presidential primary?" by saying, "I think so."

The day before, Lee Tae-gyu, Secretary General of the People Power Party, stated in a radio interview, on the premise of his personal opinion, "If Leader Ahn is excluded from the process of selecting the opposition's presidential candidate, I think it will not be very successful."

Regarding this, Seong said, "(Leader Ahn's) closest aide is Secretary General Lee," adding, "Since he personally made such remarks, I cannot say much, but I predict that more advanced discussions will come out after some time." He continued, "I think there will be efforts to pave the way toward the presidential election."

When asked about criticism that Leader Ahn's declaration of not running in the presidential election was a breach of promise, he said, "It is up to the people to judge."

Seong shifted responsibility to the People Party regarding the merger issue between the People Power Party and the People Party, saying, "It seems the People Party is delaying." He explained, "Leader Ahn was the first to talk about integration. We said that if they share their thoughts and timing, we would gather opinions accordingly, but we have not officially received anything yet because the process of collecting opinions from party members by region is ongoing."

However, Seong also expressed his personal view that there is no need to rush the timing of the merger between the People Power Party and the People Party. He said, "Personally, I think it would not be too late to make a decision after the leadership is decided and the new leadership makes various strategic judgments." In other words, it is not too late to proceed with the merger process between the two parties after the new leadership is determined through the People Power Party's party convention.