South Korea's conservative party is having problems. They first canceled and then quickly brought back Kim Moon Soo as their candidate for president. This happened in just a few hours because their internal problems got worse before the election on June 3.

On Saturday, the People Power Party suddenly changed their plan after they couldn't replace Kim with Han Duck-soo. This sudden change showed the party's leadership problems after they removed former President Yoon Suk Yeol. He was removed because he ordered martial law in December. This action may have made it harder for the conservative party to win the next election.

Kim, a strong conservative and former minister, was chosen as the party's candidate on May 3. He won the first vote with 56.3%, beating a rival who wanted changes and had criticized the president. But the party leaders, who support the president, spent the last week trying hard to make Kim step down and support Han. They thought Han had a better chance of winning against the main candidate from the Democratic Party.

After Han and Kim did not agree to join forces, the PPP party committee made a very unusual decision. Early on Saturday, they cancelled their first choice, Kim, and instead chose Han as their new candidate for president. But this change had to be approved by all party members in a phone vote. The vote on Saturday night did not agree with the change.

Party spokesman Shin Dong-wook said they couldn't share the exact numbers, but the vote to change the candidate failed by a small number of votes. The party said Kim, who had called their attempt to change him a 'sudden political takeover,' was immediately put back as the candidate. He plans to officially register with election officials on Sunday.

"Now everything will go back to where it should be," Kim said in a statement.

Kim, who is 73, was a famous supporter of workers' rights in the 1970s and 1980s. But in the 1990s, he joined a conservative party. He said he stopped wanting to be a "revolutionist" after seeing communist countries collapse. Later, he was the leader 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 job by the parliament in December and by the court in April. He left his job on May 2 to try to become president. He said his many years working for the public showed he could lead the country during hard times and trade problems made worse by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Han, who had asked the party to work together after becoming the candidate, said that he respects what the party members decided.

In recent polls, Han and Kim are far less popular than Lee. Lee, who was in charge of the Democrats' plan to get rid of Yoon, laughed at the PPP's tries to swap candidates. He said to reporters on Thursday, "I've heard of forced marriages, but I've never heard of forced unity."