Are Roh Mu-hyun and Chung Mong-joon really going to agree on a single presidential candidate? It is time to make a clear decision as the last day for registration of candidates is only five days away and negotiations are still underway, showing a distinct lack of respect to voters.

The reason why the renegotiations are in trouble is because Roh and Chung refuse to yield, on measures that they cannot accept. They finally decided on the methodology of the media survey, but both sides are still trying to create advantageous measures for their candidates.

Even if they choose a single candidate, there are important and essential problems such as how to coordinate policies from the two that are to contradictory. There are huge gaps between the two from their views on the US alliance to social and economic policies.

The reason whey we cannot disregard these differences is because they are negotiations on policies that will lead the country for the next five years. The difficulties in negotiations are due to the second and third ranking presidential hopefuls combining only tactically to try and beat the first placed candidate, Lee Hoi-chang, which simple numbers say is possible, as they have no political common ground.

We should remember the negotiations only started out of desperation of Roh and Chung and their respective camps. It is undesirable for them to test the people's patience without explaining the ideological reasons for a single candidate; and the two should make a decision to do so now.

November 22, 2002