Ex-campaign chief to head emergency leadership of main opposition party

SEOUL, April 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's main opposition party, reeling from a crushing defeat in last week's elections, decided Friday to form an emergency leadership body headed by its former campaign chief.

The United Future Party said Kim Chong-in, a veteran politician who led its campaign during the parliamentary elections, accepted its request to chair its new emergency leadership committee. The party plans to launch the panel as early as Tuesday.

Its former chief, Hwang Kyo-ahn, resigned April 15 after he was defeated in the constituency of Jongno in central Seoul.

"We asked former chairman Kim to head the emergency committee, and he accepted," Shim Jae-chul, acting party chief and floor leader, told reporters.

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