Grand National Party presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang and Park Keun-hye, leader of the Coalition for the Future reached an agreement Tuesday to merge their two parties.

"Since we have certified presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang’s motivation and enthusiasm to reform Korean politics, we decided to merge our party with Grand National Party to achieve our goal, political reforms. I will do my best to make Lee Hoi-chang win the election," said Park making an official announcement after confirming her return to GNP.

It is reported that the merger between GNP and Coalition for the Future has been made relatively fast due to a recent single presidential candidate agreement between Roh Mu-hyun and Chung Mong-joon.

A source from GNP said, "According to some survey, a few regions showed a relative decreases in Lee's support after the Roh and Chung agreement. It was very necessary for our party to make a big event to reduce their effect." He also predicted more political events such as some influential lawmakers' joining the GNP in the near future.

(Yoon Jong-ho, jhyoon@chosun.com )