Rhee, Moon Reject Merger with Chung Dong-young

After negotiations on candidacy unification between the United New Democratic Party and the Democratic Party faltered, DP presidential candidate Rhee In-je unilaterally broke off negotiations and declared he will run for his party’s candidacy yesterday.

Moreover, Creative Korea Party candidate Moon Kook-hyun officially rejected a merger with UNDP candidate Chung Dong-young and he asked Chung to resign.

Accordingly, candidacy unification from the pan-government camp will not be easy as candidacy registrations are due November 25-26.

Rhee said at a press conference on the day that, “Because the UNDP and Chung broke off the agreement on integration and candidacy unification declared by representatives of the two parties on November 12, integration and candidacy unification had been broken, and any new negotiations or agreements would be meaningless.”

Moon said at a press conference in the National Assembly that, “I can’t agree with a merger with Chung, and I officially ask Chung to resign the candidacy and apologize to the public.”

Moon also stressed that, “How can people invest in an enterprise which has gone bankrupt? In that sense, I don’t want to unite with one who once misgoverned the party. And I think the unification proposal only to increase the size of a party is wrong. The goal of candidacy unification should be the transition of the current government, not for the government’s prolongation.”

swpark@donga.com