Seoul, Korea
CNN
–
After six months of political turmoil, uncertainty and division, South Korea will vote for a new president to replace Yoon Sook Yeol, a dishonest former leader who plunged the democratic state into chaos by declaring martial law in December.
I feel this election is particularly important. A US ally and an Asian economic and cultural powerhouse, the country was amazed for months at the revolving door of the interim leader, navigating the multifaceted investigation of Yoon’s bluffing each trial and his short-lived power grab.
Meanwhile, South Korea’s economy is suffering, with President Donald Trump’s trade war and a potential global recession coming from the backdrop. The two men are committed to helping the country recover if elected. A legal case in which lawyers survived an attempted assassination became politicians, and former anti-establishment activists became conservative ministers.
The vote will be held Tuesday morning and the winner may be declared by Wednesday.
This is what you need to know.
Who is the main candidate?
The frontrunner is Lee Jae-myung (60), a liberal opposition Democratic Party.
Lee, a former minor factory worker in a poor family, became a human rights lawyer before entering politics. He is a former mayor and governor, and most recently served as a lawmaker after a slight defeat to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election.
He survived an assassination attempt in January 2024 when a man stabbed him in the neck during a public event.
He made the headline again on December 3, 2024. At night, Yoon declared martial law and sent his troops to Congress. Lee rushed to Congress and was one of the lawmakers who pushed past soldiers to vote in an emergency to lift martial law. He streamed live across the fence to enter the building on a viral video that was viewed tens of millions of times.
In the campaign trajectory, Lee has amended the constitution that promises political and economic reforms, including more control over the president’s ability to declare martial law, allowing two years of presidential terms rather than the current five-year term.
He emphasizes easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula while retaining its long-standing goal of denuclearizing North Korea. He also supports small and medium-sized businesses to boost their growth in the AI industry.
However, Lee is also unhappy with legal cases, including several ongoing trials for alleged bribery and accusations related to property development scandals.
Separately, he was found guilty of violating election law in another ongoing case sent to the Court of Appeal.
Lee denies all charges against him. Speaking to CNN in December, he allegedly had been charged with various charges “without evidence or basis,” claiming the allegations were politically motivated.
Lee’s main rival is Kim Moons from the Conservative Power Party (PPP).
When Yoon left the party in May, he urged supporters to support Kim, a former 73-year-old labor minister who was a prominent university labor activist, and was expelled and imprisoned for protest. He eventually joined the Conservative Party and after several party civil wars he stepped into nominations.
The PPP first selected Kim as the candidate. He then dropped him and instead focused on former prime minister Han Dak Thor. The party finally chose Kim after submitting legal assignments.
However, the PPP remained deeply divided, and the candidate kicked out Lee in the pre-election vote. In a post-nomination statement, Kim vowed to build a “big tent” coalition in search of unity to take on Lee, according to Reuters.
Kim also pledged to reform the country’s political, judicial and election management systems to rebuild public trust. His campaign emphasized making South Korea business-friendly by easing tax cuts and restrictions and promoting new technologies and nuclear energy.
Several third parties and independent candidates are also running for the presidency. They include Lee Jun-Seok, a former PPP leader who founded his own conservative new reform party last year.
At the forefront of voters’ minds is the country’s fiery economy and the increased cost of living. Youth unemployment rates have skyrocketed, consumption has declined, and the economy has unexpectedly signed contracts in the first quarter of this year.
Part of that comes from Trump’s trade war. This is a major blow to South Korea’s export-dependent economy. South Korea’s exports to the US fell sharply in the first few weeks of April after tariffs began, with the country’s biggest airline warning that the slump could cost up to $100 million a year.
Officials from both countries met for a tariff talks, but political turmoil at home is likely to slow progress and hinder trade deals until a new South Korean president is elected.
So, both key candidates are focused on the economy, committing to stabilizing the cost of their products and improving housing, education and job opportunities.
But there are also many other issues that the next president needs to tackle. For example, it represents an emergency demographic crisis seen in other countries such as Japan and China, such as the country’s rapidly aging society and fertility rates. Among the general complaints of young couples and singles, the costs of parenting, gender inequality and discrimination against working parents are high.
After that, there is local tension. There is an ever-present threat from North Korea. It is rapidly modernizing the military, developing new weapons, and testing intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach almost anywhere in the United States. Experts have warned in recent years that the country may be preparing to resume nuclear tests, and it was suspended in 2018.
China is crossing the yellow sea, and South Korea has strong trade relations, but historically it has diplomatic relations.
South Korea also maintains a close security alliance with the United States, hosting around 30,000 American troops within the country. In recent years, South Korea, Japan and the US have been more closely attracted and working to counter China’s influence in the strategically important Asia-Pacific region.
After Congress voted to fire him each last year, Yoon took office in April months after the legal battle.
It was an incredible collapse from the bounty of becoming a former prosecutor and a politician. The politician became prominent due to his role in another president’s ammo each.
Soon after that, Yoon moved from the president’s residency to an apartment in the capital Seoul. However, his legal battle is ongoing. He faces charges such as insurrection, crimes punished by imprisonment of life or death (although South Korea has not enforced it for decades). Yoon denied all charges against him.
