Yoo Si-min: "Effect of Yoon-An Unity? Not Much... 'Politician Ahn Cheol-soo' Has No Future"

"'Future Government' Keyword... Possibility of Agreement on Ahn Cheol-soo as Prime Minister"

Former Director of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation Yoo Si-min, who was indicted on charges of defaming Prosecutor General Han Dong-hoon, is attending a trial held at the Seoul Western District Court on October 21 last year. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoon Seul-gi] Former Roh Moo-hyun Foundation director Yoo Si-min claimed that the agreement on unification between Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate, and Ahn Cheol-soo, the People's Party's presidential candidate, after long struggles "will have little effect."

Yoo appeared on CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' on the 3rd and said, "I have been saying this continuously since about a week ago," adding, "As of a week ago, all the votes that would go to (Candidate Yoon) had already gone, and according to the data, the votes will not tilt to either side."

He continued, "If I were to guess by intuition, the votes will be split evenly," and said, "It feels like they sold the 'light' but ended up selling the 'non-light.' By itself, it won't score 3 points," adding, "I believe Ahn's decision to choose power sharing was made in a situation where he had no chance of winning. It is simply the process of the small People's Party, which has only three members of the National Assembly, being absorbed into and disappearing within the People Power Party."

Yoo predicted that there would be a behind-the-scenes agreement between Candidate Yoon and Candidate Ahn. He said, "There will obviously be a behind-the-scenes agreement. The contents may vary, but it will be about power sharing," and added, "When the DJP coalition was formed, Kim Jong-pil held half of the cabinet positions including the Prime Minister, and even half of the personnel authority over government-invested institutions and public institutions. I speculate there will be a similar agreement." The DJP coalition refers to the coalition cabinet formed for about three years after Kim Dae-jung (DJ), then chairman of the New Politics National Congress, and Kim Jong-pil (JP), then chairman of the United Liberal Democrats, declared unification in the 1997 presidential election and DJ's administration began.

Yoo said, "If I were Candidate Ahn, I would naturally demand the Prime Minister position. The joint declaration defines it as a national unity government, and the first keyword is a future government, which I believe is rhetoric with a high possibility of agreeing on Ahn Cheol-soo as Prime Minister."

However, Yoo expressed a pessimistic outlook on the future of 'politician Ahn Cheol-soo.' He stated, "However, as a politician and political leader, his future will no longer exist," and added, "The People Power Party will not make a character like Candidate Ahn a presidential candidate."