South Korea’s conservative People Power Party (PPP) is in deep turmoil just weeks before the June 3 presidential election, after it abruptly canceled and then reinstated the candidacy of Kim Moon Soo within a matter of hours on Saturday. The confusion reflects a leadership crisis following the impeachment and removal of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was ousted in April for imposing martial law last December.
Kim, a former labor minister and close ally of Yoon, had won the PPP’s presidential primary on May 3 with 56.3% of the vote, beating a reform-minded rival who opposed Yoon’s hardline actions. Despite Kim’s victory, party leaders—many of them loyal to Yoon—had been trying to replace him with former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, arguing that Han had a better chance of defeating Lee Jae-myung, the liberal Democratic Party’s candidate and current frontrunner.
After negotiations between Kim and Han failed to produce a unified ticket, the PPP’s emergency leadership committee took the drastic step of annulling the primary results early Saturday, stripping Kim of the nomination and installing Han as the new candidate. The decision was meant to be ratified by an all-party vote conducted via an automated phone survey. However, by Saturday night, the vote narrowly rejected the leadership’s attempt to make the switch.
Party spokesperson and lawmaker Shin Dong-wook confirmed that the motion to replace Kim was defeated by a slim margin. Kim, who had harshly criticized the move to oust him as a “political coup,” was promptly reinstated and is expected to file his official candidacy with election authorities on Sunday.
“Now everything will return to its rightful place,” Kim said in a statement.
At 73, Kim is a seasoned conservative figure. Once a labor activist in the 1970s and 1980s, he abandoned his revolutionary ideals in the 1990s, citing the collapse of communist regimes. He went on to serve three terms in the National Assembly and eight years as governor of Gyeonggi Province, South Korea’s most populous region.
Han, who briefly served as acting president following Yoon’s removal, resigned on May 2 to launch his own presidential campaign. He argued that his decades of public service made him the best candidate to lead the country through current geopolitical tensions and complex trade dynamics, particularly those influenced by U.S. policies under President Donald Trump.
Despite the drama, both Han and Kim trail far behind Lee Jae-myung in recent polls. Lee, a key figure in Yoon’s impeachment, mocked the conservative party’s internal chaos, saying, “I have heard of forced marriages but never heard of forced unity.”
