The snap election was triggered by the removal of Yoon Suk-yeol from the presidency for declaring martial law on December 3.
South Korea’s main conservative party has nominated Kim Moon-soo, a former labour minister and veteran political figure, as its presidential candidate for the snap election to be held on June 3.
Kim, 73, secured the People Power Party (PPP) nomination with 56.5 percent of the vote at the party’s national convention in Goyang city in Gyeonggi Province on Saturday.
The election was triggered by the dramatic impeachment of conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol after South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled that he had grossly violated his duties by declaring martial law without justification on December 3.
The ruling ended Yoon’s presidency and forced the country into an early vote to choose his successor.
Kim, a former labour activist who later shifted to the conservative camp, previously served as labour minister under Yoon and governor of South Korea’s Gyeonggi Province from 2006 to 2014.
Kim will face liberal Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung, who remains a clear frontrunner with nearly 50 percent of public support, according to a survey by the pollster Realmeter released on Monday, while Kim had 13 percent support.
Kim has pledged to implement business-friendly policies if elected. He laid out a sweeping conservative vision for the country in his acceptance speech, promising to take a hard line against North Korea and implement incentives for businesses and for innovation and science.
He also pledged to strengthen policies to support young workers and the underprivileged, recounting his experience as a labour and democracy activist while in university for which he was jailed and expelled from school.
“I have never abandoned the weakest among us in the lowest of places,” he said.
But the race was rocked this week by a court ruling that cast doubt on Lee’s eligibility to run for the presidency, overturning a lower court acquittal that cleared him of violating election law in a previous race.
The Supreme Court sent the case back to an appeals court and it was not clear when a new ruling will be made.
On Friday, Yoon’s former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo announced his entry into the presidential race, hoping to leverage his higher profile. Han, while not a member of the conservative party, has been mentioned as a potential partner of the party to join forces against the liberals in the race.