DP's Lee Jae-myung on track to become Korea's next president

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DP's Lee Jae-myung on track to become Korea's next president

Published: 03 Jun. 2025, 22:09 Updated: 03 Jun. 2025, 23:10

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Members of the liberal Democratic Party, left, celebrate at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, as the results of the joint exit poll by broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS are released on June 3. Members of the conservative People Power Party, right, watch the same results while seated silently at the legislature. [NEWS1]

In a sharp repudiation of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, South Koreans appear to have handed Lee Jae-myung of the liberal Democratic Party (DP) victory in the 21st presidential election, according to exit polls and preliminary vote counts on Tuesday evening.

Exit polling conducted jointly by the major broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS projected that Lee would win 51.7 percent of the vote, compared to 39.3 percent for Kim and 7.7 percent for the Reform Party’s Lee.

Cable channel JTBC similarly predicted that Lee would prevail with 50.6 percent of the vote against 39.4 percent for Kim and 7.9 percent for the Reform Party's Lee.

With 24.8 percent of the nationwide vote counted as of 11 p.m. on Tuesday, official results from the National Election Commission (NEC) showed Lee had secured 47.9 percent of the vote against rivals Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party (PPP) and Lee Jun-seok of the minor Reform Party, who garnered 43.9 percent and 7.2 percent.

The joint exit poll by the three broadcasters reflects a profound shift in the public mood following Yoon’s impeachment last December over his short-lived imposition of martial law, which had last been invoked by the military dictatorship more than four decades earlier.

The Constitutional Court’s decision to uphold Yoon’s impeachment in April triggered Tuesday’s snap presidential election, which took place amid high public anxiety and intense political polarization.

According to local media reports, all three candidates were expected to leave their private residences and head to their respective party election headquarters at the National Assembly once 70 to 80 percent of ballots had been counted — a threshold the NEC projected would be reached around midnight.

Voter turnout reached 79.4 percent, the highest in nearly two decades. More than a third of the electorate — 34.7 percent — cast their ballots during early voting on May 29 and 30, the second-highest level in South Korean history.

After polling ended at 8 p.m., sealed ballot boxes from 14,295 polling stations nationwide were transferred to a total of 254 tallying stations, where some 70,000 personnel are expected to count votes through the night.

Lee, 60, a human-rights-lawyer-turned-politician, has long cast himself as a champion of working-class South Koreans. Born into poverty and having worked in a factory as a teenager, he rose to become mayor of Seongnam in 2010 and governor of Gyeonggi, the nation’s most populous region, in 2018.

If confirmed, Lee’s victory would represent a rare political reversal: a liberal candidate winning the presidency after narrowly losing to a conservative predecessor.

In 2022, Lee lost to Yoon by a razor-thin margin. Lee’s return would echo that of fellow liberal Moon Jae-in, who lost the 2012 race to conservative Park Geun-hye before winning the presidency in 2017 following Park’s ouster.

Like Moon, Lee remained a central figure in liberal politics after his initial loss.

He won a seat in the National Assembly through a parliamentary by-election in June 2022 before consolidating his control over the DP by clinching the party’s chairmanship two months later.

His status as a sitting lawmaker shielded him from arrest amid a series of criminal investigations related to his time in local government — allegations he has consistently described as politically motivated, particularly given Yoon’s previous role as prosecutor general.

As one of Yoon’s most prominent critics, he emerged almost immediately as the frontrunner for the presidency in public opinion surveys after Yoon was impeached over his short-lived declaration of martial law in the late hours of Dec. 3.

In addition to rallying lawmakers to the National Assembly that night to rescind Yoon’s decree, Lee castigated the PPP over the following months, accusing it of conspiring with Yoon’s staunchest supporters to undermine public trust in the judiciary and, by extension, confidence in the fairness of the impeachment process.

Lee also worked to widen his appeal to moderate and conservative-minded voters, even describing the DP as South Korea’s “true center-right party,” inviting muted criticism from a few liberal figures.

Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung, left, holds up his arms at his final campaign rally in Yeouido, western Seoul, on June 2 while conservative People Power Party candidate Kim Moon-soo makes a similar gesture at his final rally in Seoul Plaza in Jung District, central Seoul, the same night. [NEWS1]

When the Constitutional Court decided to uphold Yoon’s impeachment in early April, triggering Tuesday’s snap election, DP members overwhelmingly voted to give him a second shot at the presidency.

However, Lee’s path to a second presidential bid remained rocky throughout the impeachment drama.

The risk that he might be barred from running for office rose after he was convicted of violating South Korea’s election law by a Seoul court last November.

Though an appellate court acquitted him in March, the Supreme Court sent the case back for retrial in early May — just weeks after he was confirmed as his party’s nominee.

The timing of that decision, which came after Lee had been confirmed as the DP nominee, triggered accusations from liberals that the top court was trying to mount a “judicial coup” intended to disqualify him from running.

If he is confirmed as the victor of Tuesday’s race, Lee will inherit a myriad of challenges that his predecessors have failed to resolve.

South Korea is grappling with a rapidly aging population and one of the world’s lowest birthrates, raising fears about the sustainability of its pension system, health care, and labor force.

The main industrial drivers of South Korea’s economy, such as semiconductors, shipbuilding, automobiles and steel, face stiff competition from neighboring China and U.S. tariffs.

The country must further contend with North Korea’s advancing arsenal of nuclear weapons, missiles, drones and submarines, which are likely to grow in sophistication if the regime’s military and technical cooperation with Russia continues.

Although these issues were ostensibly addressed during three televised debates between the four leading candidates last month, campaign rhetoric on all sides featured more personal invective than visions for the future.

While Lee accused Kim of being an apologist for Yoon’s short-lived martial law declaration, Kim characterized Lee as unfit for the presidency and a threat to democratic norms because of his five criminal indictments.

Update, June 3:Vote percentages updated at 11 p.m.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]