TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Lee Jae Myung has been elected as the president of South Korea in a snap election on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. The candidate of the liberal South Korea party won after six months of voting against the military emergency decree imposed by his ousted predecessor.
As reported by Channel NewsAsia on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, Lee's victory will mark the beginning of significant political changes in the fourth largest economy in Asia. This comes after a strong public reaction in South Korea to the military emergency that ousted Yoon Suk Yeol, the conservative politician who defeated Lee in the 2022 presidential election.
With 100 percent of the votes counted, Lee won 49.42 percent of nearly 35 million votes cast. Meanwhile, his conservative party rival, Kim Moon-soo, garnered 41.15 percent of the votes. This election resulted in the highest voter turnout for a presidential election since 1997, according to data from the National Election Commission.
Kim gracefully conceded defeat and congratulated Lee in a brief statement to the press.
Lee, a 61-year-old former human rights lawyer, referred to Tuesday's general election as a "judgment day" on Yoon's military emergency and the failure of the People Power Party to halt the misguided move.
"The first mission is to firmly address the rebellion and ensure that there will never be another military coup with weapons and swords aimed at the people," Lee said in his victory speech outside the parliament building.
"We can overcome this temporary hardship with the combined strength of the people, who possess great ability," he said.
Lee was officially inaugurated as president by the National Election Commission on Wednesday and immediately assumed the presidency and commander-in-chief.
A brief swearing-in ceremony is scheduled at the parliament building at 11 a.m. local time, said an interior ministry official.
Lee also pledged to revive the economy and seek peace with nuclear-armed North Korea through dialogue and strength.
The military emergency decree and the six months of turmoil that followed, involving three different interim presidents and several rebel criminal trials for Yoon and several high officials, marked a stunning political self-destruction for the former leader.
Yoon was impeached by the Lee-led parliament, then removed from office by the Constitutional Court in April, less than three years into his five-year term. This triggered the snap election, which will now reshape the country's political leadership and foreign policy from a key ally of the United States.
Lee accused the People Power Party of pardoning the military emergency attempt by not fighting harder to thwart it and even trying to salvage President Yoon's position.
Kim was Yoon's labor minister when the former president announced the military emergency on December 3.
"I was here on December 3 after the military emergency was announced, and on December 14 when Yoon was impeached," said Choi Mi-jeong, 55, a science teacher who gathered outside the parliament to hear Lee's speech.
"Now Lee Jae Myung is going to be president. I hope he will be a leader who supports ordinary people, not personal interests, not a handful of rich people," she said.
A series of heavy economic and social challenges await the new leader, including a society deeply hurt by the division after the military emergency attempts. Hits to an economy heavily reliant on exports have also occurred due to unpredictable protectionist measures by the United States, the country's main trading partner and security ally.
The government under the interim president made little headway in efforts to mitigate the very high tariffs announced by the Donald Trump administration that will hit several major industries in the country, including automotive and steel.
"President Lee will find that he has little time to spare before dealing with the most important task at the start of his term: reaching an agreement with Trump," said the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies in an analysis.
The White House stated that Lee's election was "free and fair," but the United States remains concerned and opposed to Chinese interference and influence in democracies around the world, according to a White House official.
The alliance between the US and South Korea remains "strong," the official said.
NEED FOR CHANGE
Park Chan-dae, the acting leader of Lee's Democratic Party, told KBS that the projections showed that voters rejected the military emergency efforts and hoped for improvements in their livelihoods.
"I think people made a daring judgment on the rebel regime," he said.
Both Lee and Kim promised change for the country. They both said that the political system and economic model built during its rise as a democracy and emerging industrial power no longer served their purposes.
Their proposals for investment in innovation and technology often overlapped, but Lee advocated for more equality and assistance for middle to low-income families. While Kim campaigned to provide more freedom for businesses from regulations and labor disputes.
Lee is expected to take a more conciliatory approach toward China and North Korea, but has pledged to continue Yoon's engagement with Japan.
Kim labeled Lee a "dictator" and his Democratic Party as a "monster," warning that if the former human rights lawyer becomes president, no one would stop them from working together to change laws just because they didn't like it.
'POLARIZED'
"The economy has become much worse since December 3, not just for me but I hear it from everyone," said Kim Kwang-ma, 81. "And we as a society have become very polarized...I hope we can come together so that Korea can flourish again."
There were no female candidates running in Tuesday's election for the first time in 18 years.
Although polls showed a wide gap between young men and women, gender equality was not among the main policy issues raised during this election. This is in stark contrast to the 2022 election.
"One thing that makes me slightly frustrated with mainstream candidates, both Lee Jae Myung and the conservative candidate, is that they lack policies towards women or minority groups," said Kwon Seo-hyun, 18, a new student and first-time voter who took to the streets to protest against Yoon's military emergency.
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