By Ju-min Park
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s right-wing presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo accused his party on Thursday of trying to force him out and threatened to take legal action just weeks ahead of a snap election slated for June 3.
Kim told a press conference he believed the party leadership was trying to “bring him down” in favour of another candidate, former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, even though Kim had been chosen as the party’s “legitimate” nominee.
The People Power Party (PPP) selected Kim as its candidate on Saturday through primaries but is now urging Kim and Han to negotiate on who should represent the party in the election.
Han, who resigned as acting leader last week to run in the polls, does not belong to the PPP but was prime minister under ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol who was from the party.
Unifying the conservative candidates is seen as one of the few options in order to stand a chance against Democratic Party frontrunner Lee Jae-myung in the election.
In a two way race, Lee has 53% support versus 40% for Han, while there is 54% support for Lee versus 38% for Kim, according to a Gallup Korea poll published on May 6.
Conservative leader Yoon was removed from office in April over his shock martial law order, prompting the snap election.
But efforts to form a unity ticket among conservatives have proved difficult.
“The forced unification process that’s underway now is a forceful candidate replacement and an attempt to bring me down… so it could lead to legal disputes. Stop it immediately,” Kim said of the party leadership.
Kim’s supporters filed an injunction to stop the party from holding a convention this weekend to officially pick either Kim or Han as a candidate, Yonhap News Agency reported on Wednesday.
Senior PPP leaders and Han’s campaign are pressuring Kim to come to an agreement before May 11 when the official registration for presidential candidates closes.
Kim has rejected the calls and proposed a one-week campaign for each candidate and a public survey afterwards to pick a unified candidate.
In response, Kweon Seong-dong, floor leader of the PPP, said that Kim was trying to keep his candidacy in a “pathetic” way.
Kweon began a hunger strike on Wednesday night along with other senior party leaders, increasing pressure on Kim to quickly unify his candidacy with Han.
(Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Ed Davies and Saad Sayeed)
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