South Korea’s ruling party elected as its new leader a candidate backed by President Yoon Suk-yeol, who is trying implement a historic deal to mend ties with Japan and win concessions from the U.S. over export curbs that could hurt his country’s chipmakers.
The conservative People Power Party selected Kim Gi-hyeon, a four-term lawmaker, as its new leader in a vote late Wednesday. Kim was considered Yoon’s preferred candidate.
The move could help the president, a prosecutor-turned-politician, better control the party he only joined a few months before the launch of his run for the country’s top office.