Seoul: People Power Party (PPP) presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo and former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo held their second meeting Thursday as the conservative party struggled to field a unified candidacy for the June 3 election. The televised meeting came a day after Kim and Han failed to reach an agreement on whether to team up against Democratic Party (DP) candidate Lee Jae-myung, at a time when Kim has been on a collision course with the party's leadership, which is pressing Kim to merge campaigns with Han.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Han emphasized the importance of unifying candidacies, noting that Kim had mentioned it 22 times during the PPP primary process from April 19 to May 6. Han urged Kim to maintain a consistent stance on merging their candidacies, warning that failure to achieve unification could spell the end for both of them. Kim, however, dismissed Han's concerns, stating that he is considering the unification and has never ruled it out.
Earlier in the day, Kim demanded that the PPP's leadership stop forcing him to unify candidacies with Han, asserting his position as the party's "legitimate" nominee. In contrast, Han urged Kim to "keep his promise" on unifying the conservative candidates. The internal strife between Kim and the PPP's leadership escalated as Kim revealed in an interview with KBS TV that he filed an injunction with the Seoul Southern District Court to prevent the party leadership from replacing him with another candidate.
Kim, a former labor minister, was nominated by the PPP as its presidential candidate last week. Although Han declared his presidential bid, he stated he will not register for the presidential race if there is no agreement with the PPP on unifying candidacies. The deadline for candidate registration with the National Election Commission is May 11.