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Yang Hyang-ja nominated as PPP candidate for Gyeonggi governor

Published: 02 May. 2026, 12:21 Updated: 02 May. 2026, 16:57

Yang Hyang-ja, a People Power Party candidate for Gyeonggi governor, speaks during a roundtable of prospective candidates at the Gyeonggi Provincial Council in Suwon on April 29. [YONHAP]

Yang Hyang-ja, a member of the main opposition People Power Party's (PPP) supreme council, was nominated as the party's candidate for Gyeonggi governor in the June 3 local elections, the party announced on Saturday.

The PPP's nomination committee announced the results of the primary that took place from Thursday to Friday.

Yang is widely known for rising to the rank of an executive at Samsung Electronics in 2014 after joining the company as a vocational high school graduate without a college degree in 1985.

Her political career began in 2016, when she was recruited by former President Moon Jae-in, who was the leader of the Democratic Party (DP) at the time. She was elected to the National Assembly in 2020.

In the upcoming election, Yang will compete against DP Rep. Choo Mi-ae, a six-term lawmaker who served as the justice minister under the Moon administration, to secure the governorship of Korea's most populous province with about 14 million people.

Eyes are on whether she will unify her candidacy with that of the minor Reform Party candidate, Cho Eung-chon.

With Yang's nomination, the PPP has completed its candidates for all 16 major provincial and metropolitan mayoral races nationwide.

If either Yang or Choo wins the election, they will become the first female governor of a metropolitan government.

Yonhap