Software tycoon Ahn Cheol-Soo has been persistently wooed by opposition political parties since he emerged as a likely presidential contender in the run-up to the Seoul mayoral by-election. One group headed by Moon Jae-in of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation wrote to Ahn on Sunday urging him to join a new pan-opposition party.

Chung Se-kyun, a senior member of Democratic Party said, "If Ahn has made a decision" whether to run for president, "he should join the pan-opposition movement."

Meanwhile, there is speculation that Ahn is getting ready to enter politics in earnest as he appears to be retreating from several presidential councils he is involved in.

According to Cheong Wa Dae, Ahn was absent from a meeting of the President's Council on Informatization Strategies on Monday morning. A member of the council said, "Ahn informed us last week that he wouldn't be able to make it to the meeting due to a schedule conflict."

Ahn is also a member of the Presidential Council for Future and Vision. A Cheong Wa Dae official said he attended a seminar by the council in June "but hasn't done much since." Ahn has chaired another council on new growth engines set up by Cheong Wa Dae and the Prime Minister's Office, but that has more or less finished its job.

Late last month, he resigned as the chief of Seoul National University's Advanced Institutes of Convergence Technology, only two months after he assumed the post, citing personal reasons.