South Korea's ruling party in leadership crisis as Seoul mayor delays candidacy registration

South Korea’s ruling People Power Party is wrestling with a growing leadership crisis as Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon again delays his candidacy registration for the June 3 local elections and presses for the formation of an Innovation Campaign Committee. The party’s leadership, including chair Jang Dong-hyuk, left the party’s leadership office with a tense mood as internal disputes deepened.

Jang publicly urged that nominations must be fair, saying that “nomination is the lifeblood of fairness,” after Oh held back on submitting additional candidate applications even though a new window had been opened. Oh’s push centers on launching an Innovation Campaign Committee and reshuffling personnel, a move that has divided party ranks.

Park Sung-hoon, the party’s senior spokesperson, said the Innovation Campaign Committee would be hard to accept if it meant ousting the party leader through a party-member vote, signaling resistance within the top ranks to Oh’s demands. The friction reflects a broader split between reform-minded members and the party’s existing power center.

Some reform-minded lawmakers have backed Oh’s push, arguing that the party needs to bring in new leadership to effectively challenge the ruling government and to put the party’s interests first. Kim Jae-seop, for example, said the party should pursue the Innovation Campaign Committee and prioritize the party over individual ambitions, while Kim Yong-tae urged that a credible critique of the government requires reform at the top.

Within the party, names floated as possible heads of the Innovation Campaign Committee have included Kim Jong-in, a veteran reformist, and Yoo Seung-min, a former lawmaker known for centrist credentials. Yet the leadership has reacted coolly, with a senior official suggesting Oh’s stance risks destabilizing the party if he insists on personal control over the process.

Amid the debate, Oh’s camp remains open to the possibility of a third-party strategic nomination, rather than a direct fallback to Oh as sole candidate. Park Sung-hoon indicated that both additional registrations and strategic nominations remain on the table, underscoring the unsettled planning for the Seoul race.

Complicating matters is the sudden resignation of Lee Jeong-hyun, head of the party’s nomination committee, who said he could no longer pursue the direction he had envisioned. After only 29 days in the post, he cited a need for change in the nomination process and told leaders he would resign, though the leadership plans to meet him to try to reverse his decision.

Lee’s departure comes amid deeper questions over how the party should select candidates for key local races, including in Daegu, and whether the party should distance itself from past pledges or stances that have caused internal friction. The timing places fresh pressure on the party leadership as it weighs how to present a united front ahead of the local elections.

Why this matters beyond Korea: Seoul’s mayoral race is a high-profile contest with implications for South Korea’s economic policy, regulatory direction for tech hubs, and the business climate that underpins major U.S. supply chains and regional markets. The party’s ability to field coherent, credible candidates affects the consistency of South Korea’s policy stance on innovation, security cooperation, and investment, all of which intersect with U.S.-Korea regional strategy and market confidence. As Seoul helps shape national policy, internal party dynamics can influence how Kad policy is crafted, implemented, and communicated to international partners.