Korean Challenge

The people of South Korea have shown their maturity as votaries of democracy by recently gifting a landslide victory to presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) who won the polls securing 49.42 per cent of the vote with a total voter turnout of 79.38 per cent. Lee assumes power with a solid popular mandate and comfortable control of the National Assembly.

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The election has brought to a close the period of uncertainty that began following a 6-month constitutional and political crisis stemming from former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived imposition of martial law and subsequent impeachment.

The victory marks a tremendous political comeback for Lee, who narrowly lost the previous presidential election by a mere 0.7 per cent to the now disgraced Yoon. Lee was at one point mired in five ongoing legal cases, one of which had put in doubt his eligibility to run for this election until the Constitutional Court’s decision in late March in his favour. His win means the return to office of progressive political forces in South Korea that last held power in 2022. The transition, however, poses challenges for Lee as he has to tackle an unenviable backlog of domestic and foreign policy issues.