On a resounding 79.4 per cent turnout, South Korean voters have delivered a clear mandate for change. Lee Jae-myung of the centrist Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) decisively won the 3 June presidential election. He becomes the country’s new president after a turbulent time for South Korean democracy.

Just six months before, South Koreans had taken to the streets to defend their democracy when President Yoon Suk Yeol tried to impose martial law. Their determination to protect democratic institutions paved the way for this electoral change, proving once again that South Koreans deeply value their hard-won freedoms.

Failed coup

The road to democratic renewal began with an unprecedented constitutional crisis. Yoon, of the centre-right People Power Party (PPP), had won the presidency in 2022 by the narrowest margin in the country’s history, after embracing misogyny to benefit from a backlash among young men against the country’s emerging feminist movement. But his success wasn’t long-lived and the PPP suffered a heavy defeat in the 2024 parliamentary election. Left a lame-duck president with plummeting popularity amid economic problems and corruption allegations, the besieged Yoon took an unprecedented gamble. On 3 December, he went on TV and declared martial law.

Under the constitution, the president can declare martial law when the nation faces extraordinary threats to its survival, such as military invasion or armed revolt. The declaration grants the military sweeping powers to arrest, detain and punish people without warrants, subjects the media to strict controls, suspends political activity and widely bans protests.

Yoon claimed his decision was motivated by the need to combat ‘pro-North Korean anti-state forces’, attempting to conflate political opposition with support for the totalitarian enemy across the border. The two Koreas technically remain at war since no peace treaty was signed after the 1950-1953 conflict. Yoon allegedly instructed the military to launch drones into North Korea to try to reignite the conflict. He ordered the army to arrest several political leaders, including Lee and the head of his own party, Han Dong Hoon, and sent troops to try to stop South Korea’s parliament, the National Assembly, meeting.

Some Yoon supporters backed the attempted coup, but most South Koreans saw this for what it was: an attempt by a failing president to hang onto power through undemocratic means. Many remembered the horrific human rights abuses committed under the military dictatorship that ended in 1987. More recent was the memory of the mass protests that forced out a blatantly corrupt president, Park Geun-hye, in the Candlelight Revolution of 2016 and 2017.

The response was immediate and overwhelming. People flooded the streets, massing outside the National Assembly. As the army blocked the building’s main gates, politicians climbed fences. Protesters and parliamentary staff formed a human chain around the building. Some 190 lawmakers managed to get in and, despite Yoon ordering the army to break down the chamber’s doors, they unanimously voted to repeal the martial law declaration.

Yoon first made a televised apology but a few days later issued a statement of defiance, insisting his martial law declaration had been legitimate and pledging to ‘fight to the end’. But the end came quickly. A first impeachment vote on 7 December failed when most PPP members of parliament boycotted it. But a week later, a second one succeeded, suspending Yoon’s presidency.

Yoon initially refused to attend his impeachment trial before the Constitutional Court, which on 4 April unanimously ordered the end of his presidency and a fresh election. Yoon is now on trial on insurrection charges, potentially facing a life sentence. His arrest on 15 January followed a dramatic failed attempt on 3 January, when Yoon supporters and the Presidential Security Service blocked access to the presidential palace, leading to violent clashes. Protests have continued both for and against Yoon, with young people at the forefront of demands for justice.

Campaign issues

Lee, a former human rights lawyer who narrowly lost in 2022, has benefited from the public appetite for change, taking 49.4 per cent of the vote; an absolute majority isn’t required. His campaign strategically tacked rightwards, deemphasising some of the more progressive policies he’d previously championed, such as a basic income plan for young people. This positioning helped win over former PPP supporters appalled by Yoon’s actions and the party’s continuing failure to condemn them.

Lee comfortably beat PPP candidate Kim Moon-soo, who took around 41.2 per cent. But another important factor was a split in the vote on the right: a more conservative party, the Reform Party, had broken off from the PPP in January 2024, disrupting the usual two-party dynamics to capture 8.3 per cent. Had these two reunited, they could have prevailed despite Yoon’s dismal record in office.

The martial law crisis dominated the campaign, but it wasn’t the only issue on people’s minds. Economic matters were important for many voters, with South Korea’s once-mighty economy faltering and high living costs and inequality becoming pressing concerns. These worries were exacerbated by the threat of US tariffs: South Korea, the fourth-biggest steel exporter to the USA, faces 50 per cent tariffs.

For some young male voters, misogyny remained a key political motivation that the Reform Party sought to exploit. More broadly, there’s political concern about the country’s falling birthrate, one of the world’s lowest, and the reality of an ageing population.

Political polarisation seems sure to continue following a bruising election campaign that saw the two main candidates accuse each other of planning to destroy democracy. Lee, who survived an assassination attempt in 2024 and continues to face death threats, campaigned under heavy security. One crucial test of his presidency will be whether he can heal these political divides.

Challenges ahead

Lee however enters office carrying his own baggage, in the form of corruption allegations. Sadly, this is nothing new in South Korea’s politics. In 2023, Lee was indicted on charges of breach of trust, bribery, conflict of interest and corruption over alleged collusion with property developers when he was mayor of Seongnam city. In November 2024, he received a one-year suspended sentence for making false statements during the 2022 election campaign regarding his relationship with the former head of the Seongnam Development Corporation.

A retrial is pending following an appeal, postponed until 18 June to take place after the election; a guilty verdict could have prevented Lee standing. He’s also been fined for defying court orders to testify in the case. Lee insists the charges against him are politically motivated, but they cast a cloud, and the trial could bring further uncertainty and a potential constitutional crisis.

On the international front, Lee faces the challenge of repairing relations with the USA. The White House made a bizarre comment hinting at Chinese interference in the election, apparently picking up on far-right disinformation and attempts by the defeated parties to paint Lee as a China sympathiser.

Relations with North Korea will present perhaps the biggest foreign policy challenge. DPK politicians typically focus on dialogue and bridge-building while their PPP counterparts take a more hardline approach. Lee promises to maintain this tradition, pledging to resume the cross-border dialogue that halted under Yoon.

While anything that promotes peace is welcome, the section of South Korean civil society that campaigns on North Korea’s dire human rights situation and works with defectors will be on the lookout for potential restrictions. Under the last DPK government from 2017 to 2022, relations with North Korea thawed but civil society groups working on North Korean issues experienced heightened pressure from the authorities. The government tried to ban the practice of activists using balloons to send humanitarian supplies and propaganda across the border. Civil society will be hoping the new administration doesn’t follow suit.

Time to build bridges

Lee can expect to face little formal political opposition in the short term. Yoon’s actions have left the PPP in disarray, and the party struggled to agree on its presidential candidate. The next parliamentary election isn’t due until 2028. But Lee’s honeymoon isn’t likely to last long. Economic anger could drive more people to embrace regressive politics, as has happened in many countries. In globally difficult times, Lee will need to both offer political stability and deliver meaningful economic success.

That’s a tough agenda, but there’s a key asset that can help. South Koreans have demonstrated they value democracy. South Korea’s civil society is active and strong. The new administration should commit to working with and nurturing this civic energy as it tries to turn the page on a period of turmoil.

South Korea’s December resistance proved what people won’t tolerate. Now comes the harder task of building what many will embrace: a more stable, equitable democracy that serves everyone.

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