ANKARA

South Korea’s ruling party presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo said Tuesday that the People Power Party (PPP) has effectively abandoned him and failed to recognize him as its official candidate, according to local media.

Kim's remarks came after the party formed a task force to explore unifying his candidacy with that of former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who recently registered as an independent candidate.

"The (PPP) leadership promised full support for the candidate. But so far, they have been excluding me and unilaterally operating the party, effectively refusing to acknowledge me as the party's official presidential candidate," Kim was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency. He argued that any efforts to unify candidacies should be led by the candidate himself.

Han, who stepped down last week as acting president, also emphasized the need for a single conservative candidate to challenge the opposition front-runner. “Failure to unify the candidacies would be a major betrayal of the people,” he told reporters.

South Korea will hold a snap presidential election on June 3 after the Constitutional Court removed former President Yoon Suk Yeol from office.

According to a new JoongAng Ilbo poll, Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung remains the front-runner with 47% support, followed by Han at 23%, Kim at 13%, and Reform Party candidate Lee Jun-seok at 4%.