{"id":22004,"date":"2025-05-02T12:56:30","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T07:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=22004"},"modified":"2025-05-02T12:56:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T07:11:30","slug":"south-korea-former-pm-launches-presidential-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/south-korea-former-pm-launches-presidential-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea former PM launches presidential bid"},"content":{"rendered":"
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South Korea’s former prime minister Han Duck-soo announced his bid for the presidency on Friday, joining the race in a snap election triggered by the impeachment of the ex-president.<\/p>\n

The June 3 vote will decide who replaces impeached former president Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office ov his ill-fated declaration of martial law in December that sank South Korea into prolonged political turmoil.<\/p>\n

Political instability in the country intensified Thursday after a retrial was ordered for a presidential frontrunner over alleged election law violations, and as two key government figures — including Han — resigned.<\/p>\n

Han had hinted at a possible presidential bid when he resigned as acting president and prime minister on Thursday, suggesting that he was willing to “take on a greater responsibility”.<\/p>\n

“For the future of the Republic of Korea, a country I deeply love, and for all of us, I have decided to do what I can,” Han said in a televised speech on Friday.<\/p>\n

“I will do my utmost to be chosen by our people in this presidential election.”<\/p>\n

The former prime minister took over as the country’s acting president after Yoon was impeached by parliament in December.<\/p>\n

The 75-year-old career bureaucrat is expected to team up with Yoon’s People Power Party to launch a unified conservative campaign against liberal frontrunner Lee Jae-myung.<\/p>\n

Across both liberal and conservative governments, Han has held a range of senior roles, including finance minister, trade minister and the country’s ambassador to the US.<\/p>\n

Notably, Han has twice served as prime minister, first under late former president Roh Moo-hyun and more recently under Yoon.<\/p>\n

“I have dedicated my life to serving on the front lines of economic development as a proud public servant of the Republic of Korea,” Han said, pledging that he will tackle the ongoing crisis in trade involving Washington’s tariffs.<\/p>\n

He also vowed to amend the Constitution to shorten the presidential term.<\/p>\n

South Korea’s single five-year presidential term has long faced criticism for concentrating excessive power in one individual, with critics accusing it of lacking sufficient checks and balances.<\/p>\n

Han’s announcement comes a day after the country’s highest court overturned a ruling that found frontrunner Lee not guilty of making false statements during a previous campaign, potentially scuppering his chances of running in the election next month.<\/p>\n

On the same day, finance minister Choi Sang-mok, set to replace Han as acting president, stepped down as opposition lawmakers voted on his impeachment over alleged involvement in the martial law incident, among others.<\/p>\n

The impeachment procedure was suspended after Choi’s resignation.
\n—<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Korea’s former prime minister Han Duck-soo announced his bid for the presidency on Friday, joining the race in a snap election triggered by the impeachment of the ex-president. The June 3 vote will decide who replaces impeached former president Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office ov his ill-fated declaration of martial law […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22004"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22006,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22004\/revisions\/22006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}