hankyoreh

Nov. 19. (by Lee Jong-geun

By Song Chae Kyung-hwa and Seok Jin-hwan, staff reporters

The two opposition candidates in next month’s presidential election, Moon Jae-in and Ahn Cheol-soo, met alone for 30 minutes on Nov. 19 at a restaurant in Seoul’s Jeong neighborhood.

During their meeting, Moon, the Democratic United Party candidate, and Ahn, an independent, agreed to resume their previously halted talks toward a decision on a final candidate to avoid splitting the vote against the Saenuri Party’s Park Geun-hye. They also made plans for their respective teams to discuss specifics on the method for reaching a deal on one of them bowing out of the race.

The candidates also included plans for increasing proportional representation seats and reducing local constituency seats in the National Assembly in their “Joint Declaration for a New Politics,” a framework for political reforms.

After the meeting, their respective spokespeople Park Kwang-on and Jeong Yeon-soon announced that Moon and Ahn had agreed to affirm the declaration as the start of reforms, have their negotiation teams discuss the method for deciding a final candidate, and join forces toward an election win to unseat the Saenuri Party (NFP).

The declaration, which was announced just after the meeting, stated the two candidates plans to “usher in a new Republic of Korea with a new politics.” Stretching over seven sheets of A4 paper, it focused on four major plans: ushering in an era of communication and cooperation in politics based on new leadership and governance methods; abandoning lawmakers’ privileges and achieving productive politics and clean government through extensive political reforms; restoring the public’s trust in politics through party innovations; and creating a citizens’ alliance for new politics and a new, non-Saenuri administration to work together in ushering in a new era for the country.

Other reform plans included scaling back the president’s authority and guaranteeing power to the prime minister and Cabinet ministers, instituting permanent parliamentary audits, and relaxing the conditions for requesting an audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection.

The declaration also addressed certain areas where Ahn has been particularly vocal, namely the abolishment of political party central organizations and a reduction in state subsidies. The two candidates agreed to support cuts in the authority and organizations of the central party, and to reduce subsidies to parties while also strengthening support by making party policy institutes into independent organizations. Analysts said Moon and Ahn seemed to have agreed to do away with the compulsory party position.

Another area where the two agreed was on the establishment of a permanent bipartisan legislative/executive governance council for the five major issues: economic democracy, jobs, welfare, inter-Korean relations, and political reform. Additionally, they agreed to guarantee the prime minister’s right to recommend Cabinet ministers or propose their dismissal, and to disallow presidential involvement in their appointment.

They went on to propose creating a model for citizen participation in governance through the development of a diverse framework for social consultation, including a labor-management-government agreement on good jobs and an agreement for shared growth between large corporations and SMEs.

The declaration further included ideas for prohibiting the abuse of power by institutions of authority by abolishing the Central Investigations Division in the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and setting up an organization to investigate corruption by senior government officials. It also mentioned cutting back the privileges of National Assembly members by prohibiting them from holding additional paying jobs, getting rid of the pension for lawmakers, and setting up a committee to review their annual allowance, with experts from outside the government participating.

To create a political environment of cooperation and shared benefits, the candidates advocated “creating a new image for the president as someone who visits the National Assembly as needed to explain governance issues, and who regularly invites leaders from the National Assembly and the different parties to the Blue House for discussions.”

Prior to the Nov. 18 meeting, DUP chairman Lee Hae-chan and members of the party‘s supreme council held an emergency meeting at the National Assembly to announce their en masse resignation.

At around noon, Ahn, who was attending a luncheon with the Gwangju Local Opinion Leader Group on Gwangju’s Chungjang avenue, said he would meet with Moon as quickly as possible after traveling to Seoul that day so that the two could “harness our wisdom toward resuming the talks” on a final candidate decision.

At 12:30 pm, Moon held a press conference at the DUP offices in Seoul’s Yeouido neighborhood to announce that he would let Ahn choose the format for the selection of a single candidate.

“For the sake of a swift agreement, I have decided to leave it to Ahn Cheol-soo to decide on the format for selecting the candidate, be it opinion polls or opinion polls ‘plus alpha,’” he said.

He went on to propose that either the candidates themselves or their negotiating teams meet that afternoon or evening.

Following Moon’s press conference, Ahn responded by saying during a meeting with Gwangju-area reporters that he would “put everything on the line for a final candidacy deal.”

“The most important thing in the decision process is that the final decision brings together supporters from both sides,” he continued. “By talking with Moon Jae-in, I am sure we can come up with a suitable method.”

However, Ahn said it was “questionable” whether direct negotiations between the two candidates would be a viable option.

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