SEOUL, South Korea: South Korea\u2019s embattled conservative party has taken the unprecedented step of nullifying its primary and replacing presidential candidate Kim Moon Soo with former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo just one week after Kim\u2019s selection, deepening internal turmoil ahead of the June 3 presidential by-election.
\nSaturday\u2019s move by the People Power Party\u2019s leadership, which Kim denounced as an \u201covernight political coup,\u201d underscores the desperation and disarray within the party following the ouster of former President Yoon Suk Yeol over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law in December.
\nKim, a staunch conservative and former labor minister under Yoon, was named the PPP\u2019s presidential candidate on May 3 after winning 56.3 percent of the primary vote, defeating a reformist rival who had criticized Yoon\u2019s martial law. But the PPP\u2019s leadership, dominated by Yoon loyalists, has spent the past week pressuring Kim to step aside and back Han, whom they believe stands a stronger chance against liberal Democratic Party frontrunner Lee Jae-myung.
\nHan served as acting president after Yoon was impeached by the legislature in December and officially removed by the Constitutional Court in April. He resigned from office May 2 to pursue a presidential bid, arguing his long public service career qualifies him to lead the country amid growing geopolitical uncertainty and trade challenges intensified by the policies of US President Donald Trump.
\nAfter failed talks between Han and Kim to unify their candidacies, the PPP\u2019s emergency committee canceled Kim\u2019s nomination in the early hours of Saturday and officially registered Han as a party member and its new presidential candidate.
\nThe replacement still requires confirmation through an all-party vote Saturday and approval by the party\u2019s national committee Sunday, which is the deadline for candidates to register with the election authorities.
\nHan in a message issued through the party claimed \u201cif we unite, we can surely win.\u201d
\nSpeaking at a news conference, Kim lamented \u201cdemocracy in our party died\u201d and vowed to take unspecified legal and political steps, but it remained unclear whether any realistic path existed to restore his candidacy without the party\u2019s cooperation.
\nKim had opposed the legislature\u2019s impeachment of Yoon on Dec. 14, though he said he disagreed with Yoon\u2019s decision to declare martial law on Dec. 3. Kim had gained popularity among hard-line PPP supporters after he solely defied a Dec. 11 demand by an opposition lawmaker that all Cabinet members stand and bow in a gesture of apology for Yoon\u2019s martial law enactment at the Assembly.
\nHan and Kim have lagged well behind Lee in recent opinion polls. Lee, who spearheaded the Democrats\u2019 efforts to oust Yoon, ridiculed the PPP efforts to switch candidacies, telling reporters Thursday, \u201cI have heard of forced marriages but never heard of forced unity.\u201d
\nLee has long cultivated an image as an anti-establishment figure capable of tackling South Korea\u2019s entrenched inequality and corruption. However, critics view him as a populist who fuels division and vilifies opponents, warning that his leadership could further polarize the country.
\nHe currently faces five trials for corruption and other criminal charges. If he becomes president, those trials likely will stop because of special presidential immunity from most criminal charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL, South Korea: South Korea\u2019s embattled conservative party has taken the unprecedented step of nullifying its primary and replacing presidential candidate Kim Moon Soo with former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo just one week after Kim\u2019s selection, deepening internal turmoil ahead of the June 3 presidential by-election. Saturday\u2019s move by the People Power Party\u2019s leadership, which …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":80811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80796"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80813,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80796\/revisions\/80813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}