May 23, 2025
SEOUL – New Reform Party candidate Lee Jun-seok announced Thursday that he plans to proceed to the June 3 presidential election under his own name and with his current party, further dampening prospects of a “merger” with People Power Party candidate Kim Moon-soo.
“In this presidential election, I, Lee Jun-seok, together with the Reform Party, will fight to the end and win under our own name,” Lee said at a press briefing at the National Assembly in the afternoon.
“When you receive your ballot, you will see clearly: No. 4 – Lee Jun-seok, New Reform Party. Please mark the box next to my name with conviction,” he added during the briefing, which had not been prescheduled.
Lee’s statement came as time is seen as running out for People Power Party candidate Kim Moon-soo’s goal of “merging” with Lee Jun-seok, in a bid to counter front-runner and Democratic Party of Korea candidate Lee Jae-myung. While Kim has repeatedly called for Lee Jun-seok to unify with him, the New Reform Party candidate has continuously refused any such overtures.
At around noon Thursday, Lee Jun-seok told reporters “there will be no merger,” at Inha University in Incheon, after eating lunch with students as part of campaign activities. Lee underscored his position, adding to reporters that they “don’t have to ask questions about the merger anymore because it’s meaningless.”
The New Reform Party candidate highlighted his latest support polling at 10 percent in a survey by four polling agencies — Embrain Public, KStat Research, Korea Research and Hankook Research – released Thursday. Lee Jun-seok was in third behind Lee Jae-myung’s 46 percent and Kim Moon-soo at 32 percent. The survey involved 1,002 respondents aged 18 or older and was conducted from Monday to Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the co-chair of the People Power Party’s election campaign committee, Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, visited Lee Jun-seok to convince the New Reform Party candidate to endorse Kim. Ahn joined Lee on the campaign trail as he sat down and had lunch with Lee alongside students at Gachon University in Gyeonggi Province.
Despite the efforts from Kim and the People Power Party, Lee told reporters after the lunch that both he and his campaign staff were “not considering or reviewing a merger” with the ex-labor minister. He took it a step further, adding he has “no plans to meet Kim for the time being.”
Meanwhile, Kim, following a campaign event in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, on Wednesday told reporters he “is open to all possibilities regarding the merger with candidate Lee Jun-seok.” He pledged “consideration” of conditions the New Reform Party candidate would present.
Observers pointed out that the merger plan would have to materialize by Sunday to be effective.
On Sunday the National Election Commission is set to print the ballots for the June 3 presidential election. Candidates who wish to withdraw can notify the state election watchdog by Sunday to have their decision reflected in the printed ballots, before the two-day early voting window May 29-30.
With only 12 days left until the election, observers said that the chances of a “candidacy merger” — which would effectively mean Lee leaving the race to endorse the No. 2 candidate — between the two conservative figures remain slim.