South Korea’s conservative People Power party has picked former Labour Minister, Kim Moon-soo as its candidate for the June 3 presidential election, which was called after the removal of Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed attempt to impose martial law.
Kim, 73, secured the People Power Party (PPP) nomination with 56.5 percent of the vote at the party’s national convention in Goyang city in Gyeonggi Province on Saturday, May 3, 2025.
The party’s primary combined votes from the party electorate and results from public opinion polling conducted Thursday and Friday, defeating former PPP leader, Han Dong-hoon, who garnered 43.5 percent.
Kim, 73, who was a labour activist in his university days but later turned hardline conservative, served as Labour Minister under Yoon and has pledged to implement business-friendly policies if elected.
Kim will face the liberal Democratic party’s candidate, Lee Jae-myung, who has led each of the declared conservative candidates by large double-digit margins in polls.
In his acceptance speech, Kim vowed to unite the party and work with other political forces to secure victory.
“I will establish strong solidarity with any forces to prevent the DP Lee Jae-myung from taking office. I will pursue this through a process and approach acceptable to both the people and party members.”
Kim Moon-soo
He laid out a sweeping conservative vision for the country vowing to take a hard line against North Korea and implement incentives for businesses and for innovation and science.
“I will ensure that extremist forces seeking to undermine our system cannot destabilize this nation. I will firmly uphold the Republic of Korea as a free and democratic country.”
Kim Moon-soo
He also pledged to strengthen policies to support young workers and the underprivileged, recounting his experiences as a labour and democracy activist, for which he was jailed and expelled from school. “I have never abandoned the weakest among us in the lowest of places,” he said.
However, he added that the party must prove that it was starting over to win voters, after the public backlash over Yoon’s martial law attempt.
Kim remains one of the few in the party who says Yoon’s removal was not warranted.
Conservatives Trail In Public Support
The conservatives trail the liberals in public support, although they have narrowed the gap since the initial weeks after the martial law declaration in early December.
Lee, the liberal candidate, remains the clear frontrunner, with nearly 50% of public support, according to a survey by the pollster Realmeter released on Monday.
However, the race was rocked this week by a court ruling that cast doubt on Lee’s eligibility to run for the presidency, overturning a lower court acquittal that cleared him of breaching election law in a previous race.
The supreme court sent the case back to an appeals court, and it was not clear when a new ruling would come.
On Friday, Yoon’s former Prime Minister, Han Duck-soo, announced his entry into the presidential race, hoping to leverage his higher profile.
Han, while not a member of the conservative party, has been mentioned as a potential partner of the party to join forces against the liberals in the presidential race.
Kim expressed openness to unifying the conservative candidacy with Han Duck-soo, while Han Dong-hoon has criticized the former prime minister for attempting to enter the race without going through the party’s primary process.
In a press conference Saturday, Kim did not directly respond to how such a merger could take place but said he is “personally close” to Han, adding they held a phone conversation earlier in the day. “I will seek to work together with many people who believe it is undesirable for candidate Lee Jae-myung to become President,” Kim said.
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