South Korea's ruling Grand National Party on Thursday announced its new name, the latest attempt to rejuvenate the embattled party before key elections this year.

The party's emergency council, formed as the conservative party struggles to recover from a series of scandals and election defeats, renamed the party "Saenuri", a Korean word meaning a new world or a new country.

The new name will be officially endorsed at a national meeting on Feb. 13.

The move comes as the party, proved widely unpopular among young voters in recent elections, scrambles to shed its image as a party for the entrenched interests ahead of the parliamentary and presidential elections.

It recently revised the platform that softened its stance on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and embraced liberal values such as economic democratization.

"I believe the public will regain confidence in our party as we continue our reform efforts," Park Geun-hye, who currently heads the emergency council, said at a council meeting.

The name change is the first one in the 15-year history of the Grand National Party, formed by the 1997 merger of the then- governing New Korea Party with the United Democratic Party.