South Korea election outcomes: Opposition chief Lee Jae-myung wins as ruling get together’s Kim Moon-soo concedes



Seoul, South Korea
CNN
 — 

Opposition chief Lee Jae-myung was sworn in as South Korea’s subsequent president on Wednesday following a dramatic snap election six months after the nation’s earlier chief declared martial law and plunged the nation into chaos.

Official outcomes confirmed Lee successful by almost three million votes forward of his foremost rival, Kim Moon-soo of the incumbent conservative Folks Energy Celebration.

Kim conceded defeat early Wednesday morning, congratulating Lee on his victory in a speech and saying that he “humbly settle for(s) the folks’s resolution.” Addressing crowds of supporters in Seoul, Lee promised to “work to revive the economic system” from day one and to make sure there’ll by no means be a army coup.

Lee was promptly inaugurated on Wednesday morning. The ceremony was scaled-down, with some temporary musical performances and a speech from the brand new chief – Lee had needed to maintain it easy and “concentrate on state affairs instantly after being sworn in,” based on the Ministry of Inside and Security.

This election was carefully watched and should now provide South Koreans some semblance of political stability after half a 12 months of uncertainty and turmoil because the US ally and financial powerhouse navigated the aftermath of the martial legislation disaster.

It additionally comes as South Korea’s export-oriented economic system grapples with world occasions like US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a possible recession, all with no everlasting chief on the helm.

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial legislation on December 3 final 12 months in a short-lived power-grab that was halted after lawmakers pushed their well past troopers into the legislature and voted to block the decree. Yoon was impeached soon after and formally removed from office in April.

Within the months since that dramatic evening, South Korea’s authorities has been in disarray, with a revolving door of interim leaders forward of the snap election.

The appearing chief of Lee’s Democratic Celebration, Park Chan-dae, mentioned in an interview Tuesday evening that the outcomes mirrored “folks’s fiery judgement towards the rebellion regime.”

A woman votes at a polling station in Seoul during the presidential election on June 3, 2025.
National Election Commission officials sort out ballots for counting in Seoul, South Korea, after Tuesday's snap presidential election.

Voter turnout reached almost 80%, based on the nation’s Nationwide Election Fee, marking the very best turnout for the reason that 1997 election.

Lee, a divisive determine inside Korean politics, emerged early on because the frontrunner, regardless of latest authorized challenges and allegations of corruption and abuse of energy. He now faces a bunch of points ready to be tackled.

South Korea’s economic system has stuttered in latest months, with rising prices of dwelling and decrease consumption. There are commerce talks with the US over Trump’s tariffs, though no deal has been struck but. There are additionally nationwide challenges just like the nation’s growing older society and falling birthrate, and geopolitical tensions with China and North Korea.

A former underage manufacturing facility employee from a poor household, Lee turned a human rights lawyer earlier than getting into politics. He’s a former mayor of Seongnam metropolis, dwelling to round 1 million folks, and governor of Gyeonggi province, and most just lately served as a lawmaker after narrowly shedding to Yoon within the 2022 presidential election.

He survived an assassination attempt in January 2024 when a person stabbed him within the neck throughout a public occasion within the metropolis of Busan. The harm required surgical procedure, however was not life threatening, officers mentioned on the time.

Later that 12 months, he once more made headlines on the evening Yoon declared martial legislation and despatched troops to parliament, changing into one of many lawmakers who rushed to the legislature and pushed previous troopers to carry an emergency vote to carry martial legislation. He livestreamed himself leaping over a fence to enter the constructing, in a viral video considered tens of tens of millions of instances.

On the marketing campaign path, usually talking behind bulletproof glass and sporting a bulletproof vest, Lee promised political and financial reforms, together with extra controls on a president’s potential to declare martial legislation, and revising the structure to permit two four-year presidential phrases as an alternative of the present single five-year time period. He additionally helps boosting small companies and rising the AI trade.

He has emphasised easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula whereas holding onto the longtime objective of denuclearizing North Korea. His aides say human rights will stay central to engagement with Pyongyang, together with discussions on returning any dwelling prisoners of warfare from the 1950-53 Korean Struggle.

However Lee has additionally been embroiled in controversy, together with a number of ongoing trials for alleged bribery and expenses associated to a property improvement scandal.

Lee Jae-myung graduated with a law degree from Chung-Ang University in Seoul and worked as a civil and human rights lawyer before entering politics.

Individually, he was convicted of violating election legislation in one other ongoing case that alleges he knowingly made a false assertion throughout a debate within the final presidential marketing campaign. The case has been despatched to an appeals court docket.

Lee denies all the fees towards him. Speaking to CNN in December, he claimed he had been indicted on numerous expenses “with none proof or foundation,” and that the allegations are politically motivated.

Opponents accuse Lee of being a polarizing determine in South Korean politics, brazenly criticizing former President Yoon and blocking laws proposed by Yoon’s authorities. Yoon even cited Lee’s Democratic Celebration and its undermining of the federal government’s price range invoice as a cause for declaring martial legislation.

Lee’s workforce has pledged to reestablish belief with the US, which his advisers have mentioned was weakened in the course of the martial legislation disaster.

The Biden administration was caught off guard by the temporary problem to South Korea’s democracy, specialists say, after the White Home invested important time to forge a landmark safety partnership between Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.

Forward of the election, Lee’s overseas coverage adviser Wi Sunglac mentioned the alliance with Washington would stay the “cornerstone” of South Korea’s diplomacy.

Supporters of Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung react outside the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday.

Relations with China and Russia, strained in recent times, might be managed by means of “strategic engagement,” with Lee’s camp saying peace and safety within the area require ongoing dialogue with each.

Seoul can also be actively negotiating with the US over Trump’s tariffs, which embody a 25% levy on South Korean exports and 25% duties on imports of cars and metal merchandise. Trump has urged extra duties on semiconductors and prescription drugs – all predominant industries for South Korea’s economic system.



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