Ahn Cheol-soo urges Lee Jae-myung to run if acquitted in trials

On the 18th, lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo of the People Power Party pointed out towards Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, saying, “After all five ongoing trial results are out, if he is acquitted, then he should run.”

On the same day in the morning, Ahn appeared on SBS YouTube and said, “If Lee receives a ruling for election law violations in the second trial scheduled for the 26th, I think he should not run in this presidential election even before the Supreme Court's ruling comes out.”

He stated, “The electoral system means that voters collect all the information about various candidates and choose the candidate they want among them. But how can one choose when one of those candidates might be found guilty or innocent by the Supreme Court?”

He added, “If unfortunately (President Yoon Seok-youl's) impeachment is approved, we have to conduct a presidential primary within 60 days, right? At that time, we need to win to maintain power, but everyone gathered here has the same thoughts, and even combined, they represent only 30% nationwide.”

He also said, “(In this way) if only like-minded individuals exchange ideas and exclude those who think differently, it becomes an irony that the most certain way to make Lee president is to prevent him from becoming president.”

Lawmaker Ahn emphasized, “What I want to appeal to those individuals is that if you believe that Lee should not become president, then despite having different thoughts, we must unite moderates and conservatives and gather everyone on our side to exceed 50% for your wishes to come true.”

Regarding the theory of a coalition, he said, “I believe I should be at the center.” Ahn noted, “In the polls of one-on-one matches between potential candidates centered around the 20s and 30s age groups, only I and Mayor Hong Joon-pyo won all the matches, and I won by more than 10% over Mayor Hong. This proves my moderate expansion capacity, so if we engage in strategic voting, it is correct for me to be at the center.”

On the same day, Ahn also continued to press Lee to present countermeasures against the North Korean nuclear threat on Facebook.

Ahn criticized, “Lee claimed that the United States Department of Energy designating South Korea as a sensitive country was due to the ruling party's nuclear armament theory,” adding, “However, he positively assessed President Trump's elevation of North Korea's status to a nuclear-capable nation, stating that it expressed willingness to resume North Korea-U.S. dialogue, but did not present any position on the most important measures against the North Korean nuclear issue.”

He also stated, “Lee must clearly reveal what realistic responses he has to the North Korean nuclear threat,” and questioned, “We must clearly answer whether we are begging for peace by relying on the goodwill of Kim Jong-un like the Moon Jae-in administration.”