SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Months of a political drama in South Korea is drawing to a close with the country poised to elect a new president this week to succeed Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative leader who was toppled over his ill-fated imposition of martial law.
Surveys show liberal Lee Jae-myung maintaining a solid lead over his main conservative rival Kim Moon Soo, who wants an upset victory. Whoever wins, the new president will forgo the usual two-month transition and serve one full, five-year term at a time when South Korea faces crucial challenges including a severe left-right political divide, the Trump administration’s tariff policy and North Korea’s expanding military partnership with Russia.
Here is a look at the two main candidates standing for the June 3 election:
LEE JAE-MYUNG
Lee, 60, the Democratic Party candidate, was the driving force behind an opposition-led campaign to oust Yoon, whose Dec. 3 marital law decree plunged South Korea into turmoil.
Lee said he initially thought Yoon’s late-night televised marital law announcement was a digital deepfake when his wife told him of the news. After realizing it was real, Lee, then the party’s chairman, ordered all his party lawmakers to rush to the National Assembly to vote down Yoon’s decree. He then livestreamed his moves to the assembly, urging the public to gather there to protest Yoon’s action.
Enough lawmakers ultimately managed to enter an assembly hall to overturn Yoon’s decree, with troops sent by Yoon apparently mostly reluctant to use physical force to seal the assembly building. Lee later led an assembly vote to impeach Yoon before the Constitutional Court formally threw him out of office in early April.
“The rebellion was subdued, and Yoon Suk Yeol was dismissed. The long, severe winter has passed, and spring has come again. The people have finally made it,” Lee said in a book published in mid-April.
This is Lee’s third run for presidency. In 2022, he lost the election to Yoon in the closet-ever margin recorded in South Korea’s presidential elections.
Lee previously served as governor of South Korea’s most populous Gyeonggi province and mayor of Seongnam city, near Seoul. He has portrayed himself as “an able captain” who can revitalize the economy, heal a worsened domestic division and bring back peace with North Korea.
“If you give me a chance to work as president, I will clearly prove how big change one official — the person in charge — can bring,” Lee told a crowd in his first official campaign speech on May 12.
Once a political outsider, Lee rose sharply in politics from his position as mayor after fiery speeches critical of conservative President Park Geun-hye over a 2016-17 corruption scandal that went viral.
Supporting his popularity was his self-built success story: Poverty forced him to quit school and work as a child laborer at factories where he suffered injuries that left him with an arm disability. He later passed the country’s highly exhaustive bar exam and became a human rights lawyer.
Lee has since tried to establish an image as someone who can fix deep-rooted inequality and corruption. But many conservative critics view him as a dangerous populist who intensifies divisions for political gains and backpedals on promises too easily.
With the assembly under his party’s control, some experts worry Lee would have excessive, unchecked power. But others say Lee is unlikely to unilaterally pursue overly drastic policies because he cannot maintain a stable leadership without the support of moderates.
He faces five criminal trials for corruption and other charges, although the proceedings will likely end if he wins because a sitting South Korean president has immunity from most criminal prosecutions.
KIM MOON SOO
Kim, 73, a hardline conservative who served as Yoon’s labor minister, initially was considered past his political prime.
He suddenly emerged as a potential standard-bearer of the embattled South Korean conservatives after he solely defied a request by a Democratic Party lawmaker for all Cabinet members to stand and bow at the assembly in a gesture of apology over Yoon’s decree.
Kim won the People Power Party’s nomination in early May. He quickly faced an attempt by party leaders to replace him with Han Duck-soo, a former prime minister and independent who was more popular in polls. In a dramatic shift, Kim eventually retained his candidacy after party members voted in his favor.
In a televised party meeting afterward, Kim knelt, apologized for the infighting and vowed to promote internal unity.
“From today, we are one team. Let’s fight together and win together,” he said.
Kim has said he would build a greater missile defense system and win a stronger U.S. security commitment to cope with North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats. He vowed to reform anti-business regulations and reduce corporate and inheritance taxes.
Kim was a prominent labor and pro-democracy activist in the 1970 and ’80s, when South Korea was ruled by military-backed leaders. He was expelled from Seoul National University, the country’s top school, worked at factories to promote labor rights and spent 2 1/2 years in prison for his anti-government activities.
Kim switched his ideology in 1994 and joined a conservative party, drawing rebukes from fellow activists who denounced him as a traitor. Kim has said he abandoned his dream to become “a revolutionist” after observing the collapses of communist states.
He served as Gyeonggi province governor for eight years and a member of the National Assembly for three terms. His political career suffered major setbacks when he successively lost parliamentary and Seoul mayoral elections to the liberals. He was named labor minister in 2024.
In a recent campaign appearance, Kim lauded late authoritarian President Park Chung-hee, father of Park Geun-hye, as a great leader who lifted the country out of poverty and apologized for his past fight against him. Park is a divisive figure because he engineered the country’s past rapid economic rise but suppressed dissidents.
“When I was young, I opposed President Park Chung-hee. But now, I’ve realized I did something wrong,” Kim said. “I spat at his grave but now I offer flowers before it.”
