Amid growing problems inside the party, South Korea's conservative party first cancelled and then brought back Kim Moon Soo's chance to run for president within a few hours, shortly before the important election on June 3.

On Saturday, there was a lot of confusion when they changed their minds suddenly. This happened after they tried and failed to replace Kim with former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. This situation showed the leadership problems in the People Power Party after former President Yoon Suk Yeol was removed. He was removed because he declared martial law in December. This decision probably hurt the conservatives' chances of winning the next election and staying in government.

Kim, a strong conservative and former labor minister under Yoon, was chosen as the PPP’s presidential candidate on May 3. He won 56.3% of the primary vote, beating a reformist opponent who had spoken against Yoon’s martial law. But the PPP’s leaders, who mostly supported Yoon, had spent the last week trying hard to convince Kim to step down and support Han. They thought Han had a better chance of winning against the main liberal Democratic Party candidate, Lee Jae-myung.

After Han and Kim could not agree to join their campaigns, the PPP’s emergency committee did something that had never been done before early on Saturday. They cancelled their primary election, took away Kim's chance to be the candidate, and made Han a party member and their new choice for president. But, this change needed to be approved by all party members in a vote using an automated phone survey. In the end, the members voted against the change on Saturday night.

Party spokesman and lawmaker Shin Dong-wook stated that while they could not reveal the precise numbers, the proposal to change the candidate was defeated by a small margin. According to the party, Kim, who had condemned the party's effort to remove him as an "sudden political takeover," was promptly restored as the candidate and intends to formally register with the election authorities on Sunday.

“Now everything will be restored to its proper position,” Kim declared in a statement.

Kim, who is 73, was an important labor activist in the 1970s and '80s. However, he joined a conservative party in the 1990s. He said he stopped wanting to be a "revolutionist" after seeing communist countries fall apart. After that, he was the governor of South Korea's Gyeonggi province for eight years and was elected to the National Assembly three times.

Han became acting president after Yoon was removed from his position by the legislature in December and by the Constitutional Court in April. He left his job on May 2 to try to become president, saying that his long career in public service makes him suitable to lead the country during increasing global uncertainty and trade problems made worse by the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Han, who had asked for unity after becoming the candidate, said in a statement that he "humbly accepts" what the party members want.

In recent polls, Han and Kim have been far behind Lee. Lee, who led the Democrats' plan to remove Yoon, made fun of the PPP's attempts to change candidates. He told reporters on Thursday, "I have heard of forced marriages but never of forced unity."