Ahn Cheolsoo Meets Oh Sehoon: "Fully Agrees on Innovation Including Personnel Reform"

On Han Donghoon's Decision Not to Run in the Party Convention: "It's Unfortunate"

On July 24, Representative Ahn Cheolsoo, who is running for the leadership of the People Power Party, had a luncheon meeting with Seoul Mayor Oh Sehoon. After the meeting, Ahn stated, "Mayor Oh wrote on Facebook that it is extremely important for our party to pursue innovation, including personnel reform, and I fully agree with that."

Ahn Cheolsoo, a presidential candidate of the People Power Party, visited Seoul City Hall on the 24th to have a lunch meeting with Seoul Mayor Oh Sehoon and is greeting Mayor Oh. Photo by Yonhap News

After the meeting with Mayor Oh at Seoul City Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul, Ahn met with reporters and said, "Only if our party pursues innovation can we overcome the current situation where even our own party members have turned their backs on us after the presidential election."

When asked whether Mayor Oh agreed with the innovation proposals Ahn had put forward as chairman of the party's Innovation Committee, Ahn replied, "Yes," and added, "It was disappointing that, during behind-the-scenes talks with the Emergency Response Committee, their position was that it was 'difficult to accept,' so we could not make further progress."

Ahn continued, "In the past, our party built a ruling coalition between the conservative forces in the Seoul metropolitan area, who supported the free market economy, and the conservatives in the Yeongnam region. However, we have not managed things well recently, and that coalition has largely collapsed. We agreed that properly restoring this coalition is the way for our party to once again become a competent conservative party and to help develop our country."

Regarding former People Power Party leader Han Donghoon's announcement that he will not run in next month's party convention, Ahn said, "It is unfortunate." He explained, "The more people there are who emphasize innovation and present new ideas, the more attention we can attract from both the public and party members. I believed that this would increase the likelihood that innovation could actually be realized."

On the possibility of forming an alliance with former leader Han, Ahn said, "I don't think there will be another opportunity to meet and form an alliance. This election campaign period is only three weeks long, and since it's the middle of summer, it's not really appropriate to travel around local party chapters to campaign."

Regarding Representative Cho Kyungtae, who has declared his candidacy for party leader and proposed unifying the reformist candidates, Ahn said, "It is not appropriate to suddenly make such a suggestion. Party members will make their own judgments about which candidate is truly reform-minded. There is no need to push for unification in advance."

On fellow leadership contender Jang Donghyuk, Ahn criticized, "Supporting martial law is a regressive stance for our times. It seems he described criticism of that position as internal strife, but that is not a valid argument."

Regarding Jeon Hangil, who recently joined the People Power Party and sparked controversy over the party's shift to the far right, Ahn said, "A party is made up of people with different backgrounds," but also added, "However, if we go so far as to embrace people who fall outside the acceptable standards, it will only lead to even greater conflict."

Ahn concluded, "This party convention is a contest between innovation and non-innovation. We need personnel reform as well as the recruitment of many new talents. Showing the public that we are changing our systems is the way for our party to move toward reform and renewal."