South Korea's ruling party overwhelmingly picked veteran politician Park Geun-Hye Monday as its presidential candidate, the first time a major Korean party has chosen a woman to run for the post.

Park, the daughter of an assassinated dictator, secured a landslide victory over four male challengers at the primary of the conservative New Frontier Party.

Opinion polls show her well placed to win the presidency in the December 19 vote.

Park, now 60, had narrowly lost out to Lee Myung-Bak in the party's 2007 primary. Lee went on to become president but the country's leaders are restricted to a single five-year term.