A former home affairs minister announced his presidential bid on Saturday, increasing to eight the number of the main opposition party's contenders for the December presidential election.

Kim Jeong-gil worked as minister of home administration from 1998 to 1999 under liberal President Kim Dae-jung.

His rivals include Moon Jae-in, a longtime aide to late former President Roh Moo-hyun; former party chairman Sohn Hak-kyu; Chung Sye-kyun, a five-term lawmaker who led the party before Sohn; and Kim Doo-gwan, a former governor of South Gyeongsang Province.

Including Kim Jeong-gil, half of the eight candidates in the running for the Democratic United Party's nomination race hail from Gyeongsang provinces, the traditional home turf of the ruling Saenuri Party.

The former two-term lawmaker Kim said in a statement that he will do his best to get his liberal party retrieve power from the conservative party in the Dec. 19 election. (Yonhap)