A presidential primary was held from 22 April to 3 May 2025 by the People Power Party (PPP) to select the party's nominee for the snap 2025 South Korean presidential election, which was held on 3 June 2025. The primary was held in the wake of the removal of 2022 PPP nominee Yoon Suk Yeol as President of South Korea in April 2025, following his impeachment by the National Assembly in December that was prompted by his declaration of martial law. Immediately after Yoon was removed from office, several candidates began to declare their candidacies for the party's presidential nomination. The party announced on 9 April that it would conduct a multi-stage primary system involving the use of polls, public surveys, and party membership votes, culminating in the official selection of the party's nominee on 3 May. The primary was held concurrently with the primary of the opposition Democratic Party.
At the party's National Convention held at Korea International Exhibition Center in Goyang, Gyeonggi on 3 May, Kim Moon-soo was announced as the winner of the primary, winning 56.53% of the final vote.
Background 2022 election and Yoon Suk Yeol's presidency
Yoon Suk Yeol was selected as the party's nominee for the 2022 presidential election after winning the primary in November 2021, defeating three other candidates. Yoon won the primary with less than 50% of the vote, only winning a plurality of 48%. Yoon would go on to win the presidential election, defeating Democratic Party nominee Lee Jae-myung by a margin of less than 1%, again failing to secure an overall majority.
During Yoon's tenure, he suffered from several domestic crises, such as the 2024 doctors strike, and scandals involving his wife, First Lady Kim Keon-hee.
In the 2024 legislative election, the Democratic-led opposition won a landslide victory and maintained their majority in the National Assembly, while the PPP obtained 108 seats in the 22nd Assembly. Yoon became a "lame duck" President following the defeat. Chairman of the PPP Emergency Committee, Han Dong-hoon, resigned following the defeat.
Martial law crisis and impeachment
On 3 December 2024 Yoon declared martial law, creating a political crisis. The National Assembly voted to impeach him on 14 December 2024, with 204 of 300 lawmakers in support, including PPP lawmakers. On 4 April 2025, the Constitutional Court of Korea upheld his impeachment, and removed Yoon from office, creating a vacating in the presidency. On 8 April, acting president Han Duck-soo announced that the election would be held on 3 June 2025.
Organization and process The People Power Party announced on 9 April 2025 that it would hold a party convention in May to select its nominee for the presidential election. The PPP's election committee confirmed the date during a meeting; party spokesman Ho Jun-seok stated that "We plan to select our candidate through the party convention the day before on May 3." To ensure fairness, the party implemented new rules that required every campaign to report their planned polls in advance to the party's planning and coordination office. The PPP also confirmed that the rule that requires officials to resign at least 18 months before election day in this primary would not be applied, which allowed former PPP leader Han Dong-hoon to enter the race. Candidate registration took place on 14 and 15 April.
By 16 April, the PPP had selected eight official candidates; 11 candidates had originally registered. The party announced it would conduct a public survey and use opinion polls to shorten the roster down to four candidates on 22 April . A combination of opinion polls and a membership vote will be conducted on 29 April to determine two finalists; the results based on a combination of party member votes and public opinion polling, both weighted at 50 percent. The party’s nominee will be confirmed after a membership vote at the party's convention on 3 May.
Candidates Nominee
People Power Party TicketKim Moon-soo for PresidentMinister of Employment and Labor(2024–2025)
Finalists +Candidates for the 2025 People Power presidential primaryNameBornExperienceAnnouncedReferencesKim Moon-soo27 August 1951 (age 73)YeongcheonMinister of Employment and Labor (2024–2025)Governor of Gyeonggi Province (2006–2014)Member of the National Assembly (1996–2006)9 April 2025Han Dong-hoon9 April 1973 (age 52)SeoulLeader of the People Power Party (2024–2024)Minister of Justice (2022–2023)10 April 2025
Eliminated in second round +Candidates for the 2025 People Power presidential primary eliminated in second roundNameBornExperienceAnnouncedEliminatedReferencesAhn Cheol-soo (age )MiryangMember of the National Assembly (2013–2017, 2022–present)Chairman of AhnLab (1995–2012)8 April 202529 April 2025Hong Joon-pyo 20 November 1953 (age 71)ChangnyeongMayor of Daegu (2022–2025)Governor of South Gyeongsang Province (2012–2017)Member of the National Assembly (1996–1999, 2001–2012, 2020–2022)14 April 202529 April 2025
Eliminated in first round +Candidates for the 2025 People Power presidential primary eliminated in first roundNameBornExperienceAnnouncedEliminatedReferencesNa Kyung-won6 December 1963 (age 61)SeoulMember of the National Assembly (2004–2008, 2008–2011, 2014–2020, 2024–present)11 April 202522 April 2025Yoo Jeong-bok 17 June 1957 (age 67)IncheonMayor of Incheon (2014–2018, 2022–present)Member of the National Assembly (2004–2014)Minister of Security and Public Administration (2013–2014)Minister for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (2010–2011)15 April 202522 April 2025Lee Cheol-woo 15 August 1955 (age 69)GimcheonGovernor of North Gyeongsang (2018–present)Member of the National Assembly (2008–2018)15 April 202522 April 2025Yang Hyang-ja 4 April 1967 (age 57)Hwasun CountyMember of the National Assembly (2020–2024)President of National Human Resource Management Institute (2018–2019)16 April 202522 April 2025
Declined
Oh Se-hoon (Mayor of Seoul) (endorsed Ahn) Yoo Seong-min (former Member of the National Assembly)
Campaign Candidate announcements Opinion polls showed that MOEL minister Kim Moon-soo had an early lead from Yoon's declaration of martial law onwards. Kim, a conservative and Yoon loyalist, is a fierce critic of impeachment measures taken against Yoon for his declaration of martial law. On 8 April, Kim announced his bid for the presidency.
A mix of other candidates were prominent in conversation as well. Mayor of Seoul Oh Se-hoon was considered a figure from the moderate conservative wing of the party. After briefly launching a run, he quickly backstepped, and declined to enter the field on April 12th. Yoo Seong-min, a prominent moderate and former candidate under the Bareun Party in 2017, also declined on the 13th to try a bid. He stated he was "furious that the PPP was focusing on vested interests rather than winning. The behavior of shrinking instead of expanding leaves me speechless."
Ahn Cheol-soo, one of just a handful of PPP assembly members who voted to impeach Yoon, was the first to confirm he was running on April 8th. He asserted that Yoon must leave the party and that the PPP must move beyond Yoon, also calling himself the candidate of scientists. Former party chair and Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon announced his bid on April 10th. Han had shifted from the conservative to moderate tent of the party due to his anti martial law stance, and rumors he would have been indefinitely held in prison had Yoon succeeded. This came after rumored clashes with the Yoon government as chairman of the PPP.
A handful of other more conservative members entered to challenge Kim as well. Hong Joon-pyo, a former several time presidential candidate and Mayor of Daegu, announced he would run on the 14th, saying that he "considered it the final mission of my 30-year political career." Far-right assembly member Na Kyung-won, basing her support heavily on the extreme conservative and strict Yoon loyalist wings of the party, launched a bid on the 11th.
First round
The first round was conducted using exclusively opinion polls. The results were determined using surveys conducted by five polling agencies, with a combined total of 4,000 respondents, according to party's election commission. According to the BBC, each polling agency conducted a survey on 800 people.
Han criticized Hong for leaving party in 2020, while Hong attacked Han’s alleged misuse of party funds and what Hong considered to be an overemphasis on “image politics” on the part of Han.
Ahn and Na frequently clashed over Yoon’s impeachment; Ahn believed Yoon’s martial law order violated the constitution and hurt the party’s reputation, while Na defended Yoon’s actions and considered the impeachment unnecessary. The two were competing for fourth place in opinion polls that would allow the top four candidates to advance to the next round. Ahn also criticized Kim Moon-soo and Hong Joon-pyo for their anti-impeachment stance, visiting Daegu on 21 April. The day before, Ahn urged Yoon to leave the party.
Kim Moon-soo pledged to expand the nation's high-speed commuter rail network, while Hong Joon-pyo announced welfare reforms. Han Dong-hoon visited Gyeongju as Ahn Cheol-soo and Na Kyung-won traveled to Hong's native Daegu, a conservative stronghold. Ahn also promised to appoint businesspeople and entrepreneurs to his cabinet, if elected.
On 22 April, the party's election commission announced four candidates had been eliminates in the first round: Na Kyung-won, Yoo Jeong-bok, Lee Cheol-woo, and Yang Hyang-ja. Ahn had beaten Na for fourth place, advancing to the second round along with Kim, Han, and Hong. In accordance with the Public Official Election Act, the party refused to announce the ranking of votes in the first round results, instead listing the names in alphabetical order. In response to advancing to the next round Ahn stated, "I think what brought me to the semifinals is the public's expectation and hope to win this presidential election." Ahn also speculated that his diverse career experience may have helped him advance. Political commentator Lee Jong-hoon believed the result signaled a possible shift within the party towards moderate conservatism. Fellow commentator Choi Soo-young agreed with Lee, stating that Ahn making it to the second round showed the party might seek to move past Yoon and his impeachment, and towards a more centrist or center-right platform.
Second round
The second round will be held between 27 and 28 April, and will be conducted with the use of both opinion polls and a membership vote, both formats being weighted at 50% each. The final results of this round will be announced by the party on 29 April.
Han and Ahn continued to be labeled as "pro-impeachment", while Kim and Hong were considered "anti-impeachment" regarding Yoon Suk Yeol's removal from office. Ahn continued to style himself as 'the only candidate who can beat Lee Jae-myung'. Hong labeled Han as a "traitor" over his support for Yoon's impeachment after being supported "by former President Yoon Suk Yeol for 20 years". Han said he considered Yoon's martial law as illegal and continued to express no regrets about supporting the impeachment. In contrast, Kim remained very critical of impeachment itself, stating it was not in the national interest, and labeling the Constitutional Court's ruling as a 'hasty and political'. Hong meanwhile said he considered both the martial law order and the impeachment to be wrong. Ahn encouraged his fellow candidates and the party to issue an official apology over Yoon's actions.