South Korea officially set June 3 for a snap presidential election triggered by last week’s removal from office of impeached leader Yoon Suk Yeol.
“The government intends to designate June 3 as the 21st presidential election day,” Acting President Han Duck-soo told a cabinet meeting, citing factors such as the time political parties need to prepare for the event.
Yoon’s labour minister Kim Moon-soo is among a handful of hopefuls who have signalled their intention to run, resigning his post on Tuesday and saying he would launch his campaign.
While not officially a member of Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) at the moment, Kim has been polling better than other conservative contenders.
Ahn Cheol-soo, a PPP lawmaker who was its first to vote for Yoon’s impeachment, also declared his intention to run on Tuesday, saying he was a “cleaner candidate than anyone else”.
He also vowed to secure new economic growth engines, including artificial intelligence, to counter Trump’s trade policies.
Ahn fought the last three presidential elections, winning more than 21% of the popular vote in 2017 but dropping out and endorsing other candidates in the other two. He is not polling high enough to be included in most recent surveys.
Kim and Ahn will join a wide-open field of conservative candidates trying to overcome their party’s second impeachment in as many presidencies.
Conservative Park Geun-hye was impeached, removed from office, and imprisoned in 2017 over a corruption scandal.
Lee Jae-myung, the populist leader of the liberal Democratic Party who lost to Yoon by a razor-thin margin in 2022, is a clear front-runner but faces legal challenges of his own.
Yoon was removed on Friday over his short-lived declaration of martial law in December that plunged the key US ally into crisis, triggering a new election that could reshape its foreign and domestic policy.
