In South Korea, the conservative party had problems and first canceled, then quickly brought back, Kim Moon Soo as their candidate for president because of disagreements inside the party, before the election on June 3rd.

On Saturday, the People Power Party suddenly changed their minds after they failed to replace Kim with Han Duck-soo. This event highlighted the party's leadership issues. These issues began after former President Yoon Suk Yeol was removed from power because he declared martial law in December. This situation likely hurt the conservative party's chances of winning the next election.

Kim, a strong conservative and former labor minister under Yoon, became the PPP’s presidential candidate on May 3. He won the primary election with 56.3% of the votes, beating a rival who wanted changes and had criticized Yoon’s martial law. But the PPP’s leaders, who were very loyal to Yoon, spent the last week trying hard to make Kim step down and support Han. They thought Han had a better chance of winning against Lee Jae-myung, the main candidate for the liberal Democratic Party.

After Han and Kim could not agree to join forces, the PPP party committee made an unusual decision on Saturday: they cancelled Kim's nomination and made Han the new candidate. But to make this change, all party members had to vote using an automated phone system. On Saturday night, they voted against changing the candidate.

"We cannot share the exact numbers," said party spokesperson and politician Shin Dong-wook, "but the idea to change the candidate was voted against by a small number of people." The party immediately put Kim back as the candidate. Kim had called the party's plan to replace him a "sudden political takeover." The party stated that Kim plans to officially sign up with the election officials on Sunday.

"Now everything will go back where it belongs," Kim said in a statement.

Kim, who is 73, was an important supporter of workers' rights in the 1970s and 80s. But he joined a conservative political party in the 1990s. He said he stopped wanting to be a 'revolutionist' after seeing communist countries fail. Since then, he was the head of South Korea's Gyeonggi province for eight years and was elected to the National Assembly three times.

Han became acting president after the legislature removed Yoon in December and the Constitutional Court officially removed him in April. Han left his job on May 2 to try to become president. He said his many years working for the public made him the right person to lead the country. He believes this is important because of international uncertainty and trade problems made worse by U.S. President Donald Trump's actions.

Han, who had asked for everyone to work together after becoming the candidate, said he accepts what the party members want.

In recent polls, Han and Kim are much less popular than Lee. Lee was the main leader of the Democrats' plan to remove Yoon. He made fun of the PPP's attempts to change their candidate, saying, "I have heard of forced marriages but never heard of forced unity."