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A liberal South Korean opposition leader who advocates improved ties with rival North Korea has become his party's candidate in next month's election of a successor to recently ousted President Park Geun-hye.

Moon Jae-win's nomination Monday as the Democratic Party's candidate boosts his status as front-runner in the May 9 election, which was triggered after Park was removed from office last month over corruption allegations.

The Democratic Party said Moon was selected its nominee in party voting that ended Monday.

Moon, who lost the 2012 presidential election to Park, a conservative, has called her hard-line policy toward North Korea a failure.

He says it's time to use both sanctions and dialogue to persuade North Korea to resume negotiations on ending its nuclear and missile programs.