President makes up ground in conservative strongholds but regional partisanship holds firm, results show
Published: 04 Jun. 2025, 19:03
Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI
![President Lee Jae-myung gives a briefing at the presidential office building in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on June 4. [NEWS1]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/06/04/057cf75d-fd60-48cb-9c31-c1e8e8c2fdb0.jpg)
President Lee Jae-myung gives a briefing at the presidential office building in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on June 4. [NEWS1]
In the 21st presidential election on Tuesday, regional voting trends revealed a distinct east-west division. President Lee Jae-myung dominated in the western half of the country — Seoul and the Gyeonggi, Chungcheong and Jeolla provinces — while People Power Party candidate Kim Moon-soo led in the eastern regions, including Gangwon and Gyeongsang.
This marks a sharp contrast to the election three years ago, when Lee lost Seoul and the Chungcheong region to former President Yoon Suk Yeol. In this election, however, Lee reclaimed those areas, widened his margin in the Democratic Party (DP) stronghold of Jeolla and significantly narrowed the gap in conservative-leaning Gangwon and Gyeongsang.
Lee ultimately secured the presidency with 49.42 percent of the vote, trouncing Kim’s 41.15 percent by 8.27 percentage points. Reform Party candidate Lee Jun-seok garnered 8.34 percent, while Kwon Young-gook of the Democratic Labor Party earned 0.98 percent.
In the key battleground of Seoul, President Lee led Kim with 47.13 percent to 41.55 percent — a reversal from the previous race, when Lee had lost the capital by 4.83 percentage points to Yoon. This time, Kim only won in four districts: Gangnam, Seocho, Songpa and Yongsan. Lee carried the remaining 21 districts.
Even in the conservative southern districts of Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa, the margins shrank. In the last election, Lee trailed Yoon by 36.66 percentage points in Gangnam and 32.95 in Seocho. This year, the gap narrowed to 24.35 and 21.07 percentage points, respectively. In Songpa, where Lee previously lost by 16.61 percentage points, he closed the gap to just 4.48.
“Though the Gangnam area leans conservative, disillusionment over the Dec. 3 martial law declaration likely pushed some voters — around 10 percent — toward Lee Jun-seok instead of Kim, narrowing the gap,” a non-DP official said.
President Lee also scored major victories in Gyeonggi with 52.2 percent to Kim’s 37.95 percent and Incheon with 51.67 percent to Kim’s 38.44 percent, both key metropolitan areas. In the previous election, Lee had only edged out Yoon in Gyeonggi by 5.32 percentage points and in Incheon by 1.85. The combined vote total in Gyeonggi and Incheon reached 11.33 million, accounting for 32.2 percent of the national turnout.
Lee also took the central region: Daejeon with 48.5 percent to Kim’s 40.58 percent, South Chungcheong with 47.68 percent to Kim’s 43.26 percent and North Chungcheong with 47.47 percent to Kim’s 43.22 percent. In Daejeon, he won all five districts.
Three years ago, Yoon carried the conservative-leaning regions of Daejeon by 3.11 percentage points, South Chungcheong by 6.12 and North Chungcheong by 5.55. That three-for-three loss flipped to a three-for-three win for the liberal Lee.
In Sejong, a traditional DP stronghold, Lee widened his lead from 7.77 percentage points in the last election to 22.41 percentage points this time.
“For Kim, it was crucial to make up for weak support in the capital area by winning in Chungcheong — but the gap only widened,” said Cho Jin-man, a political science professor at Duksung Women’s University.
Lee also expanded his already dominant lead in the Jeolla regions. He beat Kim by 76.75 percentage points in Gwangju, 77.33 in South Jeolla and 71.75 in North Jeolla. These margins surpass those from the previous election, when he beat Yoon by 72.1, 74.66 and 68.56 percentage points, respectively.
In the conservative bastion of Daegu and North Gyeongsang, Kim still held a strong lead, beating Lee by 44.4 percentage points in Daegu and 41.35 in North Gyeongsang. However, these margins were slimmer than Yoon’s previous leads of 53.54 and 48.96 percentage points.
Lee lost decisively in Busan with 40.14 percent to Kim’s 51.39 percent and South Gyeongsang with 39.4 percent to Kim’s 51.99 percent, but again, the losses were smaller than before.
He had trailed Yoon by over 20 percentage points in both regions three years ago. In Ulsan, Lee narrowed the gap from 13.62 to 5.03 percentage points. Even in Gangwon — where Lee had previously lost by 12.46 percentage points — the race tightened to a margin of just 3.35 percentage points.
Exit polls released by Korea’s three major broadcasters on the night of the election on Tuesday had projected Lee to beat Kim by 12.4 percentage points. The actual margin, however, was 8.27. This contrasts with the previous election, when exit polls had Yoon ahead by 0.6 percentage points — nearly matching the final margin of 0.73.
“It appears a significant error occurred in the broadcasters’ correction values for early voting,” said Lee Jun-ho, head of polling firm STI.
Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY SON KOOK-HEE [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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