Presidential election of the SNAP South Korea 2025: everything you need to know | Elections news

Voters from South Korea choose a new president to replace Yoon Suk-Yeol who was dismissed and removed from his functions about his submission of a brief and unhappy martial law in December.

The election of Snap of June 3 is essential, with implications for the democratic future of South Korea, as well as its links with China, the United States and its nuclear armed neighbor, North Korea.

The winner – who will serve a single five -year term – faces the task of tackling the fallout from the decree of the martial law, which lasted six hours but sparked political chaos, including mass demonstrations, a riot in a court and three caretaker leaders in six months.

The new president will also have to tackle an economic slowdown in deepening and manage pricing negotiations with the United States, which imposed a 25% levy for key exports such as steel, aluminum and cars.

Here is what you need to know about the June 3 survey:

Who are the candidates?

There are six candidates on the ballot, but the main pretenders are Lee Jae-Myung from the Democratic Party of the Korean Opposition (DP), and Kim Moon-Soo of the Power of Power of the Power of the Conservative People (PPP).

Who should win?

Lee, 61, a lawyer who has become a politician who has become a politician, is the clear favorite.

A Gallup Korea survey on May 28 showed that 49% of respondents were favorable to the Liberal candidate, while 36% said they would vote for Kim, 73, an ardent conservative who was Minister of Labor in the Government of Yoon.

Third place is Lee Jun-Seok of the New Reform Party Conservative, with 9%.

What are the main problems?

Yoon’s sloppy martial law offer threw a shadow on the race.

This put Lee, who lost the last elections against Yoon in 2022, back on the right track for the presidency.

The chief of the opposition played a decisive role in thwarting the President’s plan. On December 3, when Yoon declared the martial law – in order to cancel the Parliament dominated by the Democratic Party, which he described as “anti -state” and a “lair of criminals” – Lee rushed to the National Assembly and climbed the walls of the building to avoid the hundreds of armed troops which are deployed there. He broadcast his feat live, urging the supporters to come to Parliament and to prevent the arrest of legislators.

Despite the blocks of troops, enough legislators have managed to go to Parliament and vote to end martial law. The Assembly defeated Yoon on December 14.

“This election would not have arrived without the declaration of martial law of Yoon Suk-Yeol and his dismissal,” said Youngshik Bong, researcher at Yonsei University in Seoul. “These problems have sucked all the others as a vortex. Everything else is marginal.”

On the campaign track, Lee undertook to court any person involved in the failed Yoon offer and also promised to introduce more strict controls on the president’s ability to declare martial law.

Where candidates are held on the attempted martial law

Lee, the head of the opposition, has also proposed constitutional changes to introduce a two -year presidency of two years – for the moment, the South Korean presidents are only allowed one mandate of five years. Lee also pleaded for a runoff for presidential elections, by which no candidate obtains 50% of the popular vote, the two main candidates are reproducing in a second round.

“A presidency of four years to two years would allow a mid-term assessment of the administration, strengthening responsibility,” he wrote on Facebook, calling for a constitutional amendment to allow change. “In the meantime, the adoption of an electoral run for runoff would strengthen the legitimacy of democratic governance and contribute to reducing unnecessary social conflicts.”

The PPP KIM accepted Lee’s proposals for a constitutional amendment to allow a presidency to two mandates, but suggested shortening each mandate at three years.

Yoon’s martial law offer, however, has left the PPP in crisis and disarray.

The intestine struggles tormented the besieged party by trying to choose the successor of the president dismissed. Although Kim won the party primary, its leaders tried to replace it with former Prime Minister Han Duck-Soo. On the eve of the launch of the party campaign, they canceled Kim’s candidacy, only to restore it after the members of the party opposed this decision.

Bong, at the University of Yonsei, said that the intestine struggles and the divisions in the conservative camp on the Yoon decree cost the computer support.

“Kim Moon-Soo has not clearly established his position on the declaration of martial law,” said Bong. “He did not move away from Yoon’s inheritance, but at the same time, he did not clearly indicate if he thought that the declaration of martial law was a violation of the Constitution. The PPP therefore did not really have energy to mobilize its support bases. ”

However, Kim seems to have eroded what was a gap of more than 20% with Lee at the start of the campaign.

But he failed to convince the third competitor placed – Lee Jun -Seok – to abandon his offer and support the PPP to improve his chances. The new reform party Lee, which is 40, said on Tuesday that there would be “no fusion of candidates” with “managers of the emergency martial law”.

And foreign policy?

Although political debates have taken a rear seat, the outcome of the elections could redirect the approach of South Korea towards North Korea. The two neighbors are technically in a state of war while the Korean War of 1950-1953 ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, and the links between them are a new hollow.

The North Korean chief Kim Jong One called to rewrite the constitution of his country to abolish the longtime goal to unify the nations divided by the war and described Seoul as an “invariable main enemy”. Pyongyang has also broken the lines of communication, and the two countries clashed on balloons and drones carrying garbage and propaganda.

Lee of the Democratic Party has promised to facilitate tensions if it is elected, including in the restaurant a military hotline, and is committed to maintaining the objective of eliminating nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula.

Kim, however, supported Yoon’s hard approach, promising to guarantee a “preventive deterrent” through tools such as ballistic missiles and the redeployment of American tactical nuclear weapons. He said that he would also seek a path for the country to pursue nuclear armaments by obtaining the right to retreat the nuclear fuel, a key step towards the construction of atomic weapons.

The two candidates also differ in their approach to the United States, the most important security ally in the country and for China, its largest trading partner.

Lee, who marries what he calls a pragmatic foreign policy, said it was crucial to maintaining the alliance of South Korea with the United States and continuing security cooperation with Japan. However, he undertook to prioritize “national interests” and said that there was “no need to unnecessarily upset China or Russia”.

Kim, meanwhile, questioned Lee’s commitment to the American alliance of South Korea and promised to hold an immediate summit meeting with US President Donald Trump if he was elected to discuss the prices.

“I have a very friendly and confident relationship,” said Kim, the American leader.

He also indicated a desire to discuss the cost of parking American troops in the country more, which Trump has demanded for years.

Lee Sung-Yoon, a member of the board of directors of the North Korea in Korea, described the political differences between rival camps as “immutable” and has referred to previous comments by the Democratic Party, because of that some people consider it gentle on China and Russia.

“In the past, Lee said that South Korea should not get involved in the posture of China towards Taiwan, and simply thank Beijing and Taiwan and stay outside the conflict. He said about trilateral defensive exercises between us, Japan and South Korea as a defense disaster “and an` `extreme pro-Japanese”. invade because he was a political novice that said unhappy things. »»

The analyst said Lee – during the electoral campaign – tried to return to some of his statements in order to call on more moderate voters.

However, “I would have to guess that people who are in power councils in Washington, DC or Tokyo or kyiv, Ukraine, are not too jubilant at the perspective of a Lee administration,” he said.

When will we know the results?

Koreans abroad have already voted, and the early vote took place Thursday and Friday. A large number of people have been proved to be early voting, including the two frontrunners.

According to the National Electoral Commission, some 44.4 million people in the country of 52 million are eligible to vote. On election day, which is a public holiday, the polling stations will open at 6 a.m. (10 p.m. GMT) and will close at 8 p.m. (8:00 p.m. GMT).

The count will start immediately and the winner will be known that evening or in the early hours of the next day. The candidate who receives the most votes will be considered the winner, even if he does not earn 50% of the votes.