SEOUL, A satellite party affiliated with the ruling People Power Party (PPP) has announced a list of 35 candidates for its proportional seats, including a female lawyer with disabilities and a North Korean defector-turned-engineer. The party's election nomination committee made the announcement Monday, with the PPP arguing that the top 20 are safe to secure proportional representative seats in the April 10 general elections. Major parties have established paper parties, commonly known as satellite parties, for the 47 proportional representation seats in the 300-member National Assembly that are allocated to parties based on the total number of votes they receive. The list includes Choi Bo-yoon, the disabled lawyer, who was allocated for the first seat, followed by Park Choong-kwon, the defector-turned-engineer at Hyundai Steel Co. "Choi has been at the forefront of advocating for the rights of people with disabilities and other marginalized groups," said Yoo Il-joon, the committee chief. Other candidate s at the forefront include Jin Jong-oh, a pistol shooting legend, and Kim Gunn, the country's former top nuclear envoy. Rep. Kim Ye-ji of the PPP also secured the 15th seat, and American Korean medical doctor Ihn Yohan, who previously served as the PPP innovation committee chief, the 16th seat. A satellite party affiliated with the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) has also completed its list of candidates for proportional seats, including 20 expected to be in a safe zone. Among the list are 10 candidates recommended by the DP, four recommended by civic groups and another six recommended by two minor parties. Among the candidates is Seo Mi-hwa, a visually impaired person who previously served as a standing committee member of the National Human Rights Commission. Seo is at the top of the list of candidates recommended by civic groups. Jeon Ji-yeh earlier announced her decision to step down as a proportional representative candidate of the DP's satellite party through a civic group amid mounting criti cism over her past affiliations with radical left-wing groups with pro-North Korea and anti-U.S. tendencies. Other candidates on the top list include Wi Sung-lac, a former envoy to Russia, and Oh Se-hee, chairman of the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise, whose organization represents the interests of small businesses. Source: Yonhap News Agency