Seoul: Kim Moon-soo is the Conservative Party's candidate for the presidential elections

The former labour minister will challenge the favourite candidate, the liberal Lee Jae-myung, in the elections on 3 June. In his acceptance speech, he promised ‘a strong alliance with anyone’ to defeat his rivals. Among his priorities are support for businesses and a hard line against North Korea. However, polls still give Lee a clear lead.

Seoul (AsiaNews) - Conservatives from the People Power Party (PPP) have chosen Kim Moon-soo to challenge liberal Lee Jae-myung, the favourite in the polls, in the presidential elections scheduled for 3 June in South Korea. The former labour minister won the party's primary nomination and will run for the country's leadership in an election called after Yoon Suk Yeol was removed from office and impeached for his failed attempt to impose martial law.

In his acceptance speech following the official announcement, 73-year-old Kim promised to form ‘a strong alliance with anyone to prevent Lee Jae-myung and his Democratic Party forces from coming to power’. ‘I will strive for this with a process and method that our people and our members will accept, and in the end, I will win,’ the conservative leader continued. In the internal PPP race, the former governor of Gyeonggi province, the most populous in the country, and a three-term member of the National Assembly, won 56.5% of the vote, beating his only challenger, Han Dong-hun. Other candidates had already been eliminated earlier.

Kim was a pro-democracy and trade union activist in his early political and social life, but joined a conservative party in the 1990s, becoming one of the party's most hardline and radical figures. He now faces Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, who has so far outperformed each of the declared conservative candidates by double digits in the polls. Already labour minister under President Yoon Suk Yeol, he has promised to implement business-friendly policies if elected.

In his acceptance speech, he outlined a broad conservative vision for the country, vowing to take a hard line against North Korea and implement incentives for business, innovation and science. He also pledged to strengthen policies to support young workers and disadvantaged people, drawing on his experience as a labour and democracy activist during his university days, for which he was imprisoned and expelled from school. However, he added that the party must show that it has turned a corner to win back voters, aware of the backlash in public opinion following Yoon's martial law attempt.

The conservative party trails the liberals in the polls, although it has narrowed the gap since the first few weeks. Kim remains one of the few within his own camp to argue that Yoon's removal was not justified. Lee, the liberal candidate, remains well ahead with nearly 50% support according to a poll by polling firm Realmeter published in recent days, while Kim has 13% support.

This week, however, the race was shaken by a court ruling that questioned Lee's eligibility to run for president, overturning a lower court acquittal that had cleared him. The Supreme Court has referred the case to an appeals court, and it is unclear when a new ruling will come.

Meanwhile, yesterday, Yoon's former prime minister, Han Duck-soo, announced his entry into the presidential race, hoping to capitalise on his high profile. Although not a member of the conservative party, Han has been touted as a potential partner for the party to join forces against the liberals in the election. The nation is being dragged to the polls amid serious political and institutional turmoil following Yoon's removal from office in April by the Constitutional Court, which ruled that he had committed a serious breach of his duties by declaring martial law on 3 December without justifiable grounds.