South Korea’s Pivotal Day to Emerge from Political Crisis After Martial Law Disaster
According to webangah News Agency, South Korea’s snap presidential election is being held today following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol after his failed declaration of martial law in December 2024.
Pre-election polls indicate opposition candidate Lee jae-myung, Yoon’s longtime liberal rival, is poised for a decisive victory amid widespread public disillusionment with conservatives following last year’s martial law crisis.
Lee, who narrowly lost the 2022 presidential race to yoon, has maintained a consistent lead in all pre-election surveys.
The conservative frontrunner Kim Moon-soo has struggled to gain traction with moderate voters while grappling with intra-party divisions over how to address Yoon’s controversial actions.
the election marks another critical juncture for South Korea’s resilient democracy, but observers warn that internal divisions have deepened as Yoon’s martial law debacle and could pose meaningful challenges for the next president.
The past six months saw massive street protests both supporting and condemning Yoon. The power vacuum following his impeachment and subsequent removal paralyzed high-level diplomacy and destabilized financial markets.
The winning candidate will be sworn in immediately tomorrow for a full five-year term without the customary two-month transition period.
The new president will face major challenges including slowing economic growth, U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies, and what officials describe as North korea’s escalating nuclear threats.
Yoon shocked the nation by declaring martial law in December 2024, prompting military deployment to parliament before lawmakers overturned the measure within six hours. Parliament afterward impeached him over what became known as “the December Crisis.”
A constitutional court removed all presidential powers from 64-year-old Yoon this April. Prosecutors had first indicted him in January while still in office on charges of “leading an insurrection”-an offense not covered by presidential immunity protections.
