Lee Jae-myung Has Clear Lead a Week Before S. Korea's Snap Election

Democratic Party presidential candidate ahead of main rival by more than 10 points

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SEOUL - South Korea's liberal front runner for president, Mr Lee Jae-myung, was leading his main conservative rival Kim Moon-soo by more than 10 percentage points in an opinion poll issued on May 27, though the race had tightened a week ahead of the election.

The deeply polarized country holds a snap election on June 3 to pick a successor to ousted leader Yoon Suk Yeol, whose brief martial law imposition heightened long-simmering political disputes and sparked massive nationwide protests.

The next leader will have to mend the reputation of a country that transitioned from dictatorship to a democratic success story in the 1980s, while spurring stalled growth, managing uncertain US trade policies and dealing with nuclear-armed North Korea.