South Korea’s embattled conservative party canceled then reinstated the presidential candidacy of Kim Moon-soo within hours as internal turmoil escalated ahead of the June 3 election.
Saturday’s chaotic U-turn, after a failed attempt to replace Kim with former South Korean prime minister Han Duck-soo, underscored the People Power Party’s (PPP) leadership crisis following the ouster of former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol over his martial law imposition in December last year, which possibly doomed the conservatives’ chances of winning another term in government.
Kim, a staunch conservative and former labor minister under Yoon, was named the party’s presidential candidate on May 3 after winning 56.3 percent of the primary vote, defeating a reformist rival who had criticized Yoon’s martial law.
Photo: Yonhap via AP
The party’s leadership, dominated by Yoon loyalists, had spent the past week desperately pressuring Kim to step aside and back Han, whom they believed stood a stronger chance against liberal Democratic Party frontrunner Lee Jae-myung.
After talks between Han and Kim failed to unify their candidacies, the PPP’s emergency committee took the unprecedented step early on Saturday of nullifying its primary, canceling Kim’s nomination and registering Han as a party member and its new presidential candidate. However, the replacement required approval through an all-party vote conducted through an automated phone survey, which ultimately rejected the switch on Saturday night.
“While we cannot disclose the figures, the vote on switching the candidate was rejected by a narrow margin,” PPP spokesman and lawmaker Shin Dong-wook said.
Kim, who had denounced the party’s attempt to replace him as an “overnight political coup,” was immediately reinstated as the candidate and officially registered with election authorities yesterday, according to the party.
“Now everything will return to its rightful place,” Kim said in a statement.
Kim, 73, was a prominent labor activist in the 1970s and 1980s, but joined a conservative party in the 1990s, saying he gave up his dream of becoming a “revolutionist” after witnessing the collapse of communist states. Since then, he has served eight years as governor of South Korea’s Gyeonggi province and completed three terms in the National Assembly.
Han served as acting president after Yoon was impeached by the legislature in December last year and officially removed by the Constitutional Court in April. He resigned from office on May 2 to pursue a presidential bid, arguing his long public service career qualified him to lead the country amid growing geopolitical uncertainty and trade challenges intensified by the policies of US President Donald Trump.
Han, who had called for unity after being promoted as the candidate, said in a statement that he “humbly accepts” the voice of party members.
Han and Kim have lagged well behind Lee in recent opinion polls. Lee, who spearheaded the Democrats’ efforts to oust Yoon, ridiculed the PPP efforts to switch candidacies, telling reporters on Thursday that “I have heard of forced marriages but never heard of forced unity.”
Pakistani police yesterday said a father shot dead his daughter after she refused to delete her TikTok account. In the Muslim-majority country, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces. “The girl’s father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,” a police spokesperson said. Investigators said the father killed his 16-year-old daughter on Tuesday “for honor,” the police report said. The man was subsequently arrested. The girl’s family initially tried to “portray the murder as a suicide” said police in
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
The Russian minister of foreign affairs warned the US, South Korea and Japan against forming a security partnership targeting North Korea as he visited the ally country for talks on further solidifying their booming military and other cooperation. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov spoke on Saturday in Wonsan City, North Korea, where he met North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un and conveyed greetings from Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kim during the meeting reaffirmed his government’s commitment to “unconditionally support and encourage all measures” taken by Russia in its conflict with Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow share identical views on “all strategic issues in
‘FALSE NARRATIVE’: China and the Solomon Islands inked a secretive security pact in 2022, which is believed to be a prelude to building a Chinese base, which Beijing denied The Australian government yesterday said it expects China to spy on major military drills it is conducting with the US and other allies. It also renewed a charge — denounced by Beijing as a “false narrative” — that China wants to establish a military base in the South Pacific. The comments by a government minister came as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a six-day visit to China to bolster recently repaired trade ties. More than 30,000 military personnel from 19 nations are set to join in the annual Talisman Sabre exercises from yesterday across Australia and Papua New Guinea. “The Chinese military have