As Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic United Party rightly observed, the devil is in the details. He made the remark when he was recently referring to his negotiations with the independent Ahn Cheol-soo on which of the two will represent the opposition as its sole candidate in the upcoming presidential election.

Moon and Ahn claim their joint pursuit of the opposition’s single candidacy as a means for a change of government is a mandate from the public that desires a political reform. In response to this claim, the ruling Saenuri Party accuses each of them of trying to strike a deal to sell their souls in pursuit of power.

But the electorate should be not deluded by such rhetoric. The efforts to produce a single candidate for the opposition are neither a public mandate nor a Faustian bargain. Moon and Ahn are negotiating simply because they will have a higher chance of beating Park Geun-hye of the ruling party in the Dec. 19 election if the other should agree to concede. Of course, such a deal would pose a formidable threat to Park’s bid for the presidency.

According to surveys, Moon or Ahn would be neck-and-neck with Park if either of them ran as the sole opposition candidate. In a three-way race, however, both of them would be far behind Park. No wonder activist groups siding with the opposition are demanding that one of them make a concession.

Against this backdrop, the two candidates produced a set of negotiating principles when they had a tte--tte early last week. Their delegates have since agreed on the agenda for negotiations, including political reform and a change in the structure and operation of political parties as well as an alliance of their supporters for a change of government.

As the negotiations proceeded, both sides started to voice complaints against each other. Moon’s team, which wanted to speed up the process, accused its counterpart of dragging its feet. It demanded that the two sides adopt a “joint statement for the launch of new politics” during the next two or three days and immediately get down to negotiations on who would be the standard-bearer of the opposition.

But Ahn’s camp, claiming that the adoption of a joint statement must not be a rite of passage, insisted that the joint statement must serve as the guiding principle and, as such, must be carefully crafted. It also accused its counterpart of playing the news media against Ahn. It claimed that some news outlets were cued by Moon’s Democratic United Party when they reported Ahn would possibly make a concession this time and seek the opposition’s candidacy next time.

The negotiations so far, despite some squabbles, have been a piece of cake when compared with what is yet to come. What Moon and Ahn are aiming to do is a mission near impossible. Who of the two could be easily persuaded to give up his bid for the presidency, into which each of them has already poured so much time and energy? Moreover, it is not just the two, but their aides and supporters as well, that have a huge stake in the outcome of their negotiations.

An alliance between the liberal Kim Dae-jung and the conservative Kim Jong-pil in 1997 is often cited as a reference for the Moon-Ahn attempt. Kim Dae-jung spent more than a year in making preparations, developing a rationale for his alliance with Kim Jong-pil and cajoling him to accept his offer until he agreed to join his administration as prime minister.

But Moon and Ahn are denied such a length of time that is needed for careful preparations. Still, they can find a degree of solace in a shorter ideological gap between them than the one between Kim Dae-jung as a democracy fighter and the conservative Kim Jong-pil, a top aide for authoritarian ruler Park Chung-hee.

What Moon and Ahn are required to do is develop a joint election platform, agree on the terms of alliance and complete the candidate-selection process by the deadline they have agreed on ― Nov. 25, the first of the two dates for candidate registration. Presumably, no other viable alternative is available, given that either of them can hardly win the race without the backing of the other.