South Koreaʼs opposition announces its candidate for presidential election

The main opposition Democratic Party of South Korea has decided on its candidate for the snap presidential election, which will be held on June 3. This is former party leader Lee Jae Myung.

This is reported by Reuters.

Lee Jae Myeon has been leading in opinion polls for several weeks, with a significant lead over his opponents from the conservative Peopleʼs Power Party, which plans to announce its candidate on May 3.

In a speech after being nominated, Lee Jae Myeon promised to strengthen South Koreaʼs defense capabilities and make the country a leader in high-tech industries, a center of culture, and a model democracy. He also pledged to reduce tensions with North Korea.

In 2024, Lee led the Democratic Party to victory in the general election and has since been considered the favorite in the party primaries.

Lee Jae Myeon is a 61-year-old lawyer-turned-politician. He lost the last presidential election in 2022 by the narrowest margin in the history of democratic South Korea. That time, Yoon Seok Yeol won. Now, the Constitutional Court has removed Yoon from office for attempting to impose martial law.

In a speech, Lee Jae Myung compared Yoonʼs attempt to impose martial law to the actions of authoritarian leaders and instead declared that he would lead the country out of political and economic crisis.

However, Lee Jae Myung has also had his share of troubles throughout his career. An appeals court recently overturned his conviction for election fraud, and the Supreme Court is still considering the case for a final ruling. He is also facing trials over bribery charges and a $1 billion real estate development case.

Lee Jae Myeon became the leader of the Democratic Party in 2022 and left the position in April 2025 to run for president. Before that, he served as mayor of Songdong and governor of Gyeonggi Province, the most populous region in South Korea.

What preceded

On the night of December 3-4, 2024, then-South Korean President Yoon Seok Yeol declared martial law in the country to “protect the constitutional order” — the first time since the 1980s. The reason was that the opposition Democratic Party of South Korea, which has a majority in parliament, rejected the government’s budget proposal and decided to impeach the state auditor and the attorney general.

In total, martial law lasted about six hours, but caused an acute internal crisis. In December 2024, Yoon Seok Yeol was informed of suspicion of treason and abuse of power and was banned from traveling abroad. An attempt was made to detain the ex-president on January 3, 2025, but his bodyguards prevented this. On January 15, he was finally detained on a second attempt. On March 8, it became known that Yoon Seok Yeol had been released from prison. But he still had to stand trial.

In early April, the Constitutional Court announced a unanimous verdict supporting the impeachment of Yoon Seok Yeol and removing him from the presidency. The duties of the president are currently performed by the countryʼs Prime Minister Han Dak Soo. New presidential elections have been scheduled for June 3.

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