The conservative Bareun Party on Tuesday proposed a three-way alliance to challenge front-runner Moon Jae-in in the upcoming presidential election.

But the offer was instantly dismissed by three candidates including its own nominee Yoo Seong-min.

Bareun, which means "righteous" in Korean, held five-hour marathon talks between its lawmakers and the nominee to discuss the future of their anemic campaign.

The meeting addressed the growing sense of urgency within the party that unless it provides a breakthrough, liberal champion Moon of the Democratic Party will end up winning the election two weeks away. Yoo's approval rating has hovered at around 3 percent, far behind the 30 to 40 percent garnered by Moon.

"We agreed to do our best for Yoo's election, but also to come up with all possible ways to stop the leftist hegemonic forces from taking power, including a three-way merger," floor leader Joo Ho-young said after the talks ended past midnight, referring to Moon's campaign. "Yoo said he would watch the process."

The party wants to forge an alliance with Hong Joon-pyo of the conservative former ruling Liberty Korea Party and Ahn Cheol-soo of the center-left People's Party. Ahn has recently ranked second with ratings in the 30 percent range, while Hong has posted just below 10 percent.

Later in the day, the floor leader told reporters he and the party's election committee co-chief Kim Moo-sung have agreed to "take active steps" to explain the outcome of the meeting to the other two parties' leaders and discuss future steps.

Speaking after a conference early in the morning, Yoo reaffirmed his determination to complete the race alone.

"Nothing has changed from my initial position," he told reporters there.

The four-term lawmaker has rejected talk of a merger, citing his democratic nomination process and stark differences with Hong and Ahn. He has argued that Hong is not even qualified to run for president as he faces trial on bribery charges, while Ahn cannot be trusted on national security issues.

Ahn and Hong showed little interest in the proposed merger.

"Our party's position has always been clear. We reject an artificial alliance (engineered) by politicians," Son Kum-ju, chief spokesman of Ahn's campaign, said in a press briefing. "Only an alliance by the people is possible. We will wait for the choice of the people."

Hong stood by his call for a conservative alliance excluding Ahn.

"I think we'll have a grand conservative merger this week," he said during a lecture at a hotel. "At the end of the election, I'm certain I will win."

Moon's party played down the proposal as an alliance against the people's will.

"It's an attempt to pull back democracy and the people will view it as three-way collusion and not tolerate it," Park Kwang-on, public relations chief of Moon's election committee, said in a news briefing. "It will never be able to succeed."

Opinion surveys indicated a merger involving Ahn could win enough public support to tip the balance against Moon, but a conservative alliance may not.

Moon maintained a wide lead over Ahn with 44.3 percent against 35.3 percent in a hypothetical three-way race involving Hong, according to a poll conducted Sunday and Monday by the JoongAng Ilbo daily. In a three-way race involving Yoo, Moon still garnered 43 percent against Ahn's 37 percent.

In an earlier poll conducted by Kantar Public, however, Moon and Ahn were neck and neck in a hypothetical matchup at 41.4 percent and 41 percent, respectively.

Ballots for the May 9 election will be printed on Sunday.

"We didn't discuss a deadline," Joo said after the meeting.

"They say (a merger) should be completed before the ballots are printed for maximum effect, so we're thinking around then."

He added there was tacit agreement not to pursue a two-way merger with either Ahn or Hong. (Yonhap)