Seoul , South Korea ( CNN ) -- South Korea 's ruling Saenuri Party overwhelmingly selected Park Geun-hye as its presidential candidate during its political convention on Monday . If elected , Park -- the first woman ever nominated by the party , and the daughter of the country 's former dictator -- would become the country 's first-ever female president . Park won the support of her party running on a campaign of creating `` a country where no one is left behind . '' Park has said she will focus on welfare policies if she is elected in December and will engage with North Korea if Pyongyang abandons its nuclear weapons program . Park hopes to unite a country that the legacy of her father , the late Park Chung-hee , still divides . The military dictator who went on to win elections was behind the rapid economic growth of South Korea during the 1960s , following the Korean War , which lasted from 1950 to1953 and devastated the peninsula . Supporters say he economically transformed the country , but critics say he disregarded democracy to do so and committed human rights abuses . Under pressure from the Kennedy administration in the United States , Park re-established civilian rule and was elected in a national referendum in 1963 , and easily re-elected in 1967 , former U.S . Ambassador to South Korea Donald Gregg noted in a 1999 Time article . Park `` had a hard time beating Kim Dae-jung in 1971 . The validity of Park 's narrow election victory is still questioned . In 1972 , fearing Kim 's political potency , Park changed the election system , allowing indirect voting that could be controlled by the incumbent . In 1972 and again in 1978 he was easily elected for six-year terms , '' wrote Gregg , who had served as ambassador from 1989 to 1993 . Park was assassinated by his security chief in 1979 . Park Geun-hye lost to the current president , Lee Myung-bak , in the party 's last primary in 2007 . Lee can only serve one term under South Korean law . CNN 's Judy Kwon and Josh Levs contributed to this report .
If elected , Park Geun-hye would be the country 's first female president . Park is the daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee . He was assassinated by his security chief in 1979 .