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Negotiators managed to build a tentative bridge over troubled waters late Tuesday night, overcoming what was widely seen as the first crisis in plans to field a single candidate between the Millennium Democratic Party and the National Alliance 21. Officials of Roh Moo-hyun's MDP agreed to renegotiate some of the specifics of its original deal with Chung Mong-joon's NA 21, including the method of the proposed opinion poll, after agreeing to appoint new negotiating teams.
The two sides also succeeded in dissolving mutual distrust triggered by an information leak to the media, with respect to details of the planned survey. Chief secretary for the pro-government party candidate, Shin Kye-ryun sat down with Min Chang-ki, campaign chief of the NA 21 again early Wednesday to pave the way for an early settlement on a final agenda regarding the selection of a single presidential hopeful between the two parties.
NA 21 Spokeswoman Kim Haeng said the MDP had expressed regrets over the leak and assured there would be no recurrence, and her party would accept this as an apology. Min, who is also acting as head of the new negotiating team, said the methodology for conducting the opinion survey would remain secret until the results were announced, although the basic framework would remain the same.
(Choi Joon-seok, jschoi@chosun.com )
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