South Korea: DP candidate calls on PPP to expel ex-President Yoon from party

Lee's call came a day after the PPP's candidate Kim Moon-soo said he was not considering expelling Yoon who was ousted over his short-lived martial law imposition in December and now faces criminal charges of leading an insurrection.

"The People Power Party must immediately expel military coup leader Yoon Suk Yeol now," Lee said during a campaign rally in Busan, about 320 kilometres southeast of Seoul.

"If the People Power Party respects the basic liberal democratic order from the Constitution, it must apologise a hundredfold over the military coup.

"Is the People Power Party a conservative party as it is called? Is it a democratic party?" Lee questioned. "That party has to now choose between the two choices of changing or being kicked out."

Meanwhile, Lee told reporters that he expected the election to be determined by a slim margin despite rosy forecasts for the DP candidate who has been leading in the polls by a wide margin, Yonhap news agency reported.

"Our goal is a certain victory not an overwhelming victory,'' he said.

Yoon, who dramatically rose from a top prosecutor to the presidency in about three years, became the nation's second President to be formally removed from office, with his surprise martial law bid rattling the nation for months and deepening political polarisation.

Before taking the nation's highest office, Yoon began his career as a prosecutor in 1994, rising through the ranks to lead an investigation team into Park's corruption scandal that ultimately led to her ouster and subsequent imprisonment.

In 2019, he was appointed as the nation's top prosecutor under then South Korean President Moon Jae-in but clashed with the administration as he oversaw investigations into family members of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk.

Amid mounting pressure from the Moon administration, Yoon stepped down from his post in 2021, only to enter politics shortly after and win the presidential election in 2022 as the candidate for the conservative People Power Party.

Yoon's term was riddled with conflict with an uncooperative National Assembly dominated by the main Opposition Democratic Party (DP). Yoon exercised his presidential veto power against 25 Bills passed by the National Assembly.

Tensions with the DP appeared to reach an extreme in early December as the main Opposition introduced motions to impeach the country's top auditor and a senior prosecutor, with Yoon declaring martial law on December 3, which ultimately led to his downfall.