Lee Yang-soo, secretary-general of the People Power Party, emphasized that there were only slight misunderstandings in the process of implementing the 'decisions' proposed by presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo's camp and denied that there was any pressure to change candidates or forcibly unify with independent preliminary candidate Han Duck-soo.
The secretary-general revealed this at a press meeting held on the afternoon of the 9th, responding to claims from Kim's camp that shortly after his election at the party's convention on the 3rd, Kwon Young-se, the emergency response committee chairman, Kwon Seong-dong, the floor leader, and the secretary-general pressured him to unify.
According to this secretary-general, the decisions mentioned by Kim Jae-won, the chief secretary of Kim's camp who was present at the time, included three points: ▲ appointing eight individuals, including former representative Han Dong-hoon (who competed in the primary), as co-campaign chairs ▲ replacing the secretary-general with Representative Jang Dong-hyuk ▲ appointing Representative Kim Jae-won as the candidate's chief secretary.
The secretary-general said, 'I suggested that since there are too many co-campaign chairs, how about forming a committee with the four candidates from the second primary and former election commission chairman Hwang Woo-yeo as senior members, but since the Kim camp insisted it should be done this way, I said, “Yes, I understand.”'.
He also added, 'It is true that I asked if it would be good to unify the campaign committee with (one preliminary candidate), but since they insisted we should do it immediately, I said, “Yes, I understand,” and we actually formed the campaign committee through the emergency response committee.'
Regarding the failure to appoint Jang Dong-hyuk as secretary-general, he said, 'When Secretary-General Jang came in, I had already resigned, but the next day the chairman of the emergency response committee called and said Jang Dong-hyuk could not take it, so I was asked to take charge for a while because the secretariat needed to function, and I said, “Yes, I understand,”' adding, 'It is not true that the party refused to replace the secretary-general.'
Regarding claims from Kim's camp that the party did not even provide a candidate's office, he stated, 'I had already instructed the general affairs director to clean up everything and if there was someone the candidate wanted, it would be good to offer them a position even before I stepped down,' adding, 'The personnel appointments passed to him were not made as he declined.'
Regarding Kim's claims during the members' meeting that 'they are trying to bring me down,' he said, 'The public opinion poll being conducted today (at the party level) is based on the internal roadmap for the primary (unification), and we have never held a meeting or made a decision to bring down the candidate.' Adding, 'However, if such opinions are gathered in today's members' meeting or the emergency response committee, that possibility could exist.'
It was also stated that the claim made by Kim at the Kwanhun Debate Forum the day before that 'the party is arranging a schedule for a candidate' is not true. The secretary-general emphasized, 'Neither the leadership nor the secretariat has engaged with any candidate,' and added, 'The only arrangements made were to reserve a studio for two individuals, Kim Moon-soo and Han Duck-soo, because we needed photos for campaign posters or public materials in case we were pressed for time, such as with candidate registration during the unification process.' He also stated that 'this was reported to Representative Park Soo-young from the Kim camp and Representative Jang Dong-hyuk, so there is no room for misunderstanding.'