hankyoreh

Nov. 17. The boy in this picture interrupted a meeting and asked to have his picture taken with the two candidates. (by Kim Jeong-hyo

By Lee Tae-hee and Song Chae Kyung-hwa, staff reporters

Moon Jae-in and Ahn Cheol-soo affirmed on Nov. 18 that they would resume their interrupted talks toward selecting a single opposition candidate to run against the Saenuri Party‘s Park Geun-hye.

Moon, the Democratic United Party (DUP) presidential candidate, and Ahn, an independent, also released a joint declaration on “a new politics” following their meeting.

The meeting gave the green light for working-level talks to resume on Nov. 19. This was the biggest source of comfort from the meeting to supporters of each candidate, who worried that no deal would be reached before the candidate registration date on Nov. 25. With that date, just a week away, the talks will need to move quickly.

Observers had originally expected Moon and Ahn to agree on a method for candidate selection at their meeting.

At a press conference earlier that day, Moon had said he would leave the decision up to Ahn, indicating that he would accept the independent’s judgment on whether to use opinion polls or a combination of polling and a panel survey.

But the agreement at the meeting to make that decision through working-level talks put the candidates back at square one. Sources said neither candidate talked about the method at the meeting. At the moment, Moon and Ahn are each maintaining that the other should present the first plan.

“We plan to follow Ahn’s suggestions in the working-level talks as well,” said a key member of Moon’s camp. “There’s no reason for us to be facing off when Moon Jae-in has told Ahn he would trust him with” the decision on the method. The argument is that things can be expected to move quickly if Ahn’s side comes up with a detailed plan on how to reach a decision. It also means there has been no change in Moon’s position on a concession.

Ahn’s side saw things differently. “It’s not clear what they mean when they give our side authority to decide the method and say we have to agree on the particulars,” said a member of Ahn’s camp. “If they’re going to accept whatever we decide, then there doesn’t seem to be any need for the teams to talk. But the fact that the negotiations are happening again means they accepted the negotiating teams’ suggestions.”

Another member of Ahn’s camp said that while Moon’s proposal to meet suggested that his camp had an idea for the format, Moon’s camp didn‘t actually suggest anything. This suggests Ahn’s team was waiting for Moon‘s to present something.

But the Ahn camp’s argument seems not to add up, given that Moon ostensibly gave Ahn authority to choose a method. One possible analysis is that because the candidate who isn’t chosen stands to suffer a major political blow if Moon and Ahn agree themselves on a format for making the decision, they opted instead to have the working-level officials reach an agreement that the candidates would then accept.

While talks will resume after the meeting, questions are being raised about what Ahn achieved by halting them in the first place. Speaking in an interview with the Hankyoreh just after the halt, Ahn said Moon would have to “stop with this old-fashioned political competition” for the talks to resume again.

The explanation from Ahn’s camp is that Lee Hae-chan’s resignation as DUP chairman announcement cleared the way for the resumption of talks.

“We said we could only resume talks after confirming [the DUP’s] willingness to put political reforms into practice,” said a key official. “Although they haven’t announced any reforms in terms of their people, we judged that [Lee’s resignation] showed such a willingness.”

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