Seoul [South Korea], May 12: People Power Party (PPP) presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo registered with the National Election Commission on May 11, pledging to win the June 3 election and make South Korea a great nation, according to Yonhap. Mr. Kim also declared that he would focus on expanding the coalition not only within the party but also outside it, promising to achieve national unity and listen to the voice of the people.
Unexpected change
Mr. Kim won the primary election on May 3 to become the PPP candidate in the upcoming presidential election. However, in the early morning of May 10, the PPP leadership suddenly revoked Mr. Kim's presidential candidacy and registered former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo as the party's new member and presidential candidate.
The move by the PPP leadership came after talks on unification among the party's candidates failed, and polls showed Han leading Kim and performing better in a hypothetical matchup with opposition Democratic Party (DP) candidate Lee Jae-myung. However, against the wishes of the party leadership, PPP members rejected a motion to replace Kim with Han in a May 10 vote, restoring Kim's presidential candidacy.
After registering his candidacy, Mr. Kim met with Mr. Han at the PPP headquarters, pledging to work together to win. During the meeting, Mr. Kim asked Mr. Han to head the election committee for his campaign. Mr. Han responded that Mr. Kim would first need to discuss practical issues to determine what was appropriate. Mr. Han suspended his candidacy yesterday and expressed hope that Mr. Kim would win.
Who is leading?
On the DP side, candidate Lee Jae-myung registered with the National Election Commission on May 10, according to Yonhap. Along with Lee Jae-myung (62 years old) and Kim Moon-soo (74 years old), five other candidates have also applied. The deadline for registration is 6 p.m. on May 11 (Korean time). Lee is currently leading the polls as the most promising candidate, according to Yonhap. In a hypothetical confrontation between the top three candidates, Lee Jae-myung received 52.1 percent of the support, far surpassing Kim's 31.1 percent and Lee Jun-seok of the New Reform Party (6.3 percent), according to The Korea Herald, citing the results of a Realmeter poll released on May 11.
In recent months, Lee Jae-myung has expressed strong support for the alliance with the United States and a three-way partnership with Japan, in an effort to appeal to moderate voters, according to Yonhap. However, on May 8, he stressed that South Korea should not rush into a trade deal with the United States and called for a coordinated response with other countries to the Trump administration's tariffs, according to Reuters.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
