PPP goes all out to pressure Lee Jun-seok to drop presidential bid

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PPP goes all out to pressure Lee Jun-seok to drop presidential bid

Published: 21 May. 2025, 18:00 Updated: 21 May. 2025, 18:44

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Reform Party candidate Lee Jun-seok, left, shakes hands with Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, co-chair of the People Power Party's election committee, at a cafeteria inside the campus of Gachon University in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, on May 21. [NEWS1]

With just four days remaining before Korea’s election commission begins printing ballots for the June 3 presidential election, the conservative People Power Party (PPP) is intensifying efforts to persuade Lee Jun-seok of the minor Reform Party to bow out.

The PPP has mounted a last-ditch push to convince Lee to abandon his presidential bid and endorse PPP nominee Kim Moon-soo — a move aimed at consolidating conservative votes in a race currently led by liberal Democratic Party (DP) candidate Lee Jae-myung.

On Wednesday, Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, co-chair of the PPP’s election committee and a former presidential candidate himself, visited a Reform Party campaign event in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, where he met with Lee Jun-seok.

“Like Lee [Jun-seok], I once faced the challenge of standing against a candidate from the establishment,” Ahn wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday, referencing his 2022 campaign, when he dropped out in favor of the main conservative contender, former President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Yoon narrowly won that race against Lee Jae-myung.

With Lee Jae-myung dominating recent polls, Ahn argues that a unified front by Kim and Lee Jun-seok is essential. The PPP’s proposal, he said, is “necessary to block the great menace posed by Lee Jae-myung.”

The PPP’s efforts follow a successful playbook from the 2002 presidential race, when Roh Moo-hyun’s alliance with then-FIFA Vice President Chung Mong-joon helped propel Roh to victory.

But time is running short.

According to Gallup Korea, the share of undecided voters has dropped significantly, from 26 percent in mid-April to just 12 percent as of this past week.

Gallup’s surveys show many of those voters have swung toward either Lee Jae-myung or Lee Jun-seok after the conclusion of the PPP primaries.

So far, however, Lee Jun-seok is not budging.

Speaking after his meeting with Ahn, Lee told reporters that his position on a campaign merger remains “unchanged.”

In an interview the previous day, he dismissed the notion outright.

“I have no intention of merging my candidacy with Kim’s. That’s the old-fashioned way of doing politics,” Lee told SBS Radio.

Lee, who garnered 8 percent in the latest Gallup Korea poll released on Friday, argued that only he could thwart a DP victory, citing his upset win in last year’s general election for the Hwaseong-B constituency — where he defeated contenders from both the DP and PPP.

People Power Party candidate Kim Moon-soo speaks at a campaign stop in Paju, Gyeonggi, on May 21. [NEWS1]

“If we can't bring in enough young voters to lower Lee Jae-myung’s numbers, everything else is futile” he said, contending that Kim “cannot beat” the DP front-runner.

According to a YTN survey released Tuesday, 39 percent of respondents said they would back Kim in a hypothetical two-way race excluding Lee Jun-seok.

But support for Lee Jun-seok reached only 25 percent in a reverse scenario where Kim withdrew.

In both matchups, just over 50 percent of voters favored Lee Jae-myung.

Lee Jun-seok has also taken aim at the PPP’s tactics. On a JTBC talk show Tuesday, he accused the party of focusing more on discrediting him than challenging the DP candidate directly.

“Instead of pressing Lee Jae-myung on his record, they just call me a traitor for refusing to merge,” he said.

Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung makes a heart-shaped gesture to his supporters at a campaign event in Incheon on May 21. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Relations between Lee Jun-seok and the PPP have been fraught since 2022, when he was expelled from the party amid allegations that he received sexual services as a bribe from a businessman, but later tried to cover it up.

In the end, police declined to file charges against the young politician, who founded the Reform Party ahead of last year’s general election.

Despite his modest standing in recent polls, the Reform Party founder insists that his debate performances and continued campaigning will shift voter sentiment.

He claimed that the surveys “don’t yet reflect” his fiery showing in the first presidential debate, during which he criticized the DP candidate repeatedly for not providing enough details regarding his economic proposals.

He also expressed confidence that his presence in the race “would become better known” over time.

Lee Jun-seok isn’t the only conservative player being courted by the PPP to shore up Kim’s presidential run.

Last weekend, a party delegation traveled to Hawaii in an unsuccessful attempt to enlist former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo, who withdrew from politics following his elimination from the PPP’s primaries.

Hong declined to join the party’s election committee and reiterated on Facebook on Wednesday that he would remain abroad until after the election.

Adding to the PPP’s frustrations, some of Hong’s allies have signaled support for the DP candidate.

Former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo uploaded a photo of himself in a blue tie, left, as the cover photo of his Facebook account on May 19, only to switch it out with a near-identical image of himself in a red tie four hours later. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Upon arriving in Hawaii, Hong posted a photo of himself wearing a blue tie — a garment associated with the DP — before later replacing it with a near-identical photo featuring a red tie.

Some observers believe Hong is sending an indirect message to the PPP that he retains an independent following that he can sway in the election.

In a YouTube interview on Tuesday, DP lawmaker Park Jie-won speculated that Hong could be poised to return as a conservative leader if Kim loses the election.

However, Park dismissed rumors that Hong might back Lee Jae-myung in exchange for a future post in the administration, calling such a deal “damaging to both sides.”

“That would be detrimental to both Hong and the DP,” he said, adding that Hong would have to “clean up his reputation” first.

In Korean politics, backroom deals involving campaign mergers and promises of cabinet positions are not uncommon — but they remain risky gambits, contingent on electoral victory.

Referring to Kim’s low ratings, Lee Jun-seok suggested he currently has little reason to drop out and endorse the PPP candidate.

“It would take a very strange person to merge their campaign with someone else when they know such a gambit would still result in a loss,” he said during the JTBC talk show. “The necessary logic for a campaign merger is just not there right now.”

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]