Lee Jae-myung Wins South Korea’s Presidency

South Korea has handed a decisive victory to opposition candidate Lee Jae-myung six months after his predecessor’s martial law bid failed. His main rival was the ruling party candidate and a former member of Yoon’s cabinet, Kim Moon-soo.

He had been trailing Lee for weeks in polls and in the early hours of Wednesday, he conceded defeat, congratulating Lee “on his victory”.

The brief yet disastrous move set off huge protests and ended former president Yoon Suk Yeol’s career: impeached and removed from office, he still faces criminal charges for abusing his power.

But the political chaos that followed means victorious Lee’s biggest challenge is still ahead of him. He must unite a polarised country that is still reeling from it all.

He also faces challenges abroad – crucially, negotiating a trade deal with US President Donald Trump to soften the blow of tariffs from South Korea’s closest ally.

In an earlier speech, Lee had hinted at the win but stopped short of declaring it. He said “recovering” South Korea’s democracy would be his first priority.

“Voters weren’t necessarily expressing strong support for Lee’s agenda, rather they were responding to what they saw as a breakdown of democracy,” Park Sung-min, president of Min Consulting, told the BBC.

“The election became a vehicle for expressing outrage… [and] was a clear rebuke of the ruling party, which had been complicit in or directly responsible for the martial law measures.”

Lee’s win, he adds, shows that voters had put South Korea’s democracy “above all else”