South Korea Presidential candidates rally ahead of June 3 vote
South Korea's leading candidates held major campaign events Sunday (June 1, 2025), two days out from a snap Presidential election triggered by its former leader's removal after his disastrous declaration of martial law.
The June 3 election is set to cap months of political turmoil sparked by Yoon Suk Yeol's brief suspension of civilian rule in December, for which he was impeached and removed from office.
All major polls have put liberal Lee Jae-myung well ahead in the presidential race, with the latest Gallup survey showing 49 percent of respondents viewed him as the best candidate.
Kim Moon-soo, from the conservative People Power Party (PPP) — Yoon's former party — trailed Lee on 35%.
The 60-year-old Lee began his rally in his hometown of Andong, 240 kilometres (149 miles) southeast of Seoul, telling his supporters he would seek to weaken the concentration of development in the capital region and boost non-Seoul areas.
"We should not simply seek a regional equal development strategy but rather provide more incentives for non-Seoul regions to support them more," said Lee, wearing a bullet-proof vest.
Mr. Lee has been campaigning with additional security measures, including bulletproof shields set up on the podium.
He was stabbed in the neck in January 2024 in Busan by a man pretending to be a supporter, who later confessed that his intention was to kill Lee to prevent him from becoming president.
Mr. Lee is set to campaign in Busan later Sunday.
Kim Moon-soo was scheduled to campaign in the greater Seoul area, and kicked off a rally on Sunday in nearby Suwon by commenting on rival Lee's security measures.
"Look, I'm not wearing a bullet proof vest, right? But Lee is now even using bulletproof shields, feeling the vest isn't enough," he said.
"With such bulletproof measures, Lee is poised to impose his own dictatorship and we must stop it," Mr. Kim added.
Nearly 35% of voters have already cast their ballots — taking advantage of two days of early voting earlier last week, according to the National Election Commission.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Deccan Herald
35 minutes ago
- Deccan Herald
Cornered US universities take compliance route
The Ivy League universities in the United States are among the world's richest institutions. Cushioned by large endowments, they also are rich in terms of their scholarship, influence, and networks that make them the global stars of education. The daughter of Chinese President Xi Jinping studied at Harvard. The largest international donation (some Rs 400 crore) to the Harvard Business School came from the Tata group. Along with other select US universities, these institutions stand as icons of stature and achievement. Sometimes decried as islands of privilege, the universities are nevertheless central to the story of America and its global leadership. All US universities together attract more Indian students (331,602 Indians, followed by 227,398 Chinese students for 2023-24, according to Statista) than any other non-US standing and money power should, in normal circumstances, work as a shield that protects these institutions from rough weather. Large endowments quite naturally, it would seem, help keep future operations and growth free of any material worries. But in the complex turn that America has taken today, it is the very standing and money power that have contributed to putting the universities in the centre of a firestorm unleashed by the Trump administration. Protecting and growing the endowments, which the US institutions do rather well, has brought with it charges (whether fair or unfair) that the universities spend more on investment managers to grow their kitty rather than on growing a mission to deliver education for the US universities become prisoners of their endowments, making them more vulnerable than they should be? Prof Rashid Khalidi, a renowned Palestinian-American historian at Columbia, put it in these words several months before the current crisis erupted: 'For some time now, I have been both disgusted and horrified by the way higher education has developed into a cash register – essentially a money-making, MBA, lawyer-run, hedge fund-cum-real estate operation, with a minor sideline in education, where money has determined everything, where respect for pedagogy is at a minimum.'.Universities seek to lure US-bound students amid Trump and his friends might agree as they gather under the label of Trumpism to declare war on the education system in America. An amalgam of MAGA ('Make America Great Again') politics, with its conspiracy theorists, anti-globalists, and extreme-right conservatives, wrapped in braggadocio that is now the staple of US officialdom, demands that universities follow federal diktats on all manner of functions and operations. Some like Harvard are boldly fighting it out, while others like Columbia have caved in. Harvard, too, was quiet in the initial two weeks of April this year when a list of demands arrived from the White House and only later broke that silence when new demands got added to the original overall picture today is of universities with their backs to the wall, straining to defend their freedoms without going for an all-out fight and holding on only where the administration's demands are so egregious that they are almost impossible to meet. Mostly, the picture is of these institutions looking for a way example, while there are some statements of support from across universities, the institutes have not put up a robust joint front against the Trump administration, or are unwilling and/or unable to take the issue aggressively to the public or are willing to set up regulations that meet some demands and in the process, showing up the once-powerful bodies as weak and easily trampled from the imposing Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT. The 164-year-old institution runs a rather popular game called The Moral Machine to understand how humans might want autonomous vehicles to respond to unavoidable accident scenarios in the real world. The Moral Machine has collected 39.61 million decisions in 233 countries, dependencies or territories, according to one paper. For all its efforts to understand the moral dilemmas brought up by the use of modern systems, it took one student and a speech of less than four minutes to hold a moral mirror to the institute. MIT is among the US universities to have research ties, funding or contracts with the Israeli military that runs a genocidal operation in Palestinian territories. MIT has received over $11 million in research funding from the Israeli Ministry of Defence, according to May/June 2024 'The MIT Faculty Newsletter', an independent forum for the expression of faculty views and the stage at the pre-convocation festivities, the elected Indian American president of MIT's Class of 2025, Megha Vemuri, torched the institute she is graduating from: 'We will carry with us the stamp of the MIT name, the same name that is directly complicit with the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, and so we carry with us the obligation to do everything we can to stop it. Class of 2025 – you are MIT. Pressure is nothing to you.'.The bold protest speaks of the merits of a US campus where students find ways to be engaged in events beyond the textbooks and learn to take a stand, add to it the passion, energy, and care-a-damn attitude of their youth to turn it into a potent protest. This is unlike India, where voices don't emerge and are put down when raised, as seen in cases like a teacher who was dismissed in one Mumbai school just because she liked a post that spoke of Israel's the other hand, MIT's statement in favour of free speech that followed Vemuri's speech rang hollow because the president of the class was barred from attending her own graduation. While MIT runs the moral machine and does some exemplary research, Vemuri and her classmates showed that they are moral humans pointing to holes in the imposing edifice of MIT and indeed, the entire lot of US schools..(The writer is a journalist and faculty member at SPJIMR;Syndicate: The Billion Press)
India Today
an hour ago
- India Today
South Korea's new president Lee Jae-myung vows end to martial law turmoil
South Korea welcomed a new liberal president on Wednesday as Lee Jae-myung took office, vowing to heal a divided nation and revive the economy. His win follows months of unrest after former President Yoon Suk Yeol's controversial attempt to impose martial law, which led to his removal from won the presidency in a snap election, securing 49.42% of the nearly 35 million votes. His conservative opponent, Kim Moon-soo, received 41.15%. The National Election Commission confirmed that this was the highest voter turnout for a presidential election since called it judgment day. "The first mission is to decisively overcome insurrection and to ensure there will never be another military coup with guns and swords turned against the people," he said. He added, "We can overcome this temporary difficulty with the combined strength of our people, who have great capabilities."Soon after the official announcement by the Election Commission, the 61-year-old former human rights lawyer assumed office as president and commander-in-chief. A brief inauguration ceremony was held at the National Assembly CHALLENGES AHEAD FOR LEE JAE-MYUNGLee is takes over the office at a challenging time. The country is still shaken by political instability and economic slowdown. The failed martial law attempt by former President Yoon led to months of chaos. Three acting presidents also stepped in during the transition, which has added to the ongoing instability. advertisementLee has the task of restoring trust in the government and building national unity. The economic outlook is also grim. South Korea's economy is projected to grow by just 0.8% this year -- the slowest since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Lee's government has decided to invest in technology and innovation to revive growth. He has also pledged to increase support for middle and lower-income families who have been hit the hardest by the TALKS WITH THE US A TOP PRIORITYThe new South Korean administration will likely make efforts to buy time for US trade talks, as it studies the negotiations of bigger neighbours Japan and China for leverage, according to Lee Jae-myung, who is due to take office hours after winning the June 3 snap presidential election without a usual two-month transition period, said on the eve of the elections that "the most pressing matter is trade negotiations with the United States."The future of South Korea's export-oriented economy will hinge on what kind of deal Lee can strike, with all of his country's key sectors, from chips to autos and shipbuilding, heavily exposed to global the challenges, Lee expressed confidence in his people and the nation's potential. "This country has overcome hardship before," he said. "With unity, we can do it again."With inputs from ReutersMust Watch
Hindustan Times
2 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
CAQM directs Delhi-NCR govts to assess landfill fire risk
New Delhi The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) on Tuesday directed the Delhi-NCR state governments to carry out a fire-risk assessment of sanitary landfills and dump sites, following proper identification, categorisation, and demarcation of waste. It directed them to adopt preventive measures, including the installation of CCTV cameras and methane gas detectors, to prevent future landfill fires, as it could lead to a spike in particulate matter and release harmful gases such as NO2, SO2, CO, dioxins and furans. The pollution body also asked agencies to carry out extensive biomining or bioremediation at landfills to liquidate the legacy waste, as per the targeted timelines already submitted to the Supreme Court. 'Ensure adequate storage of sand or chemical fire extinguishing means for immediate action, whenever initiation of fire is sensed, besides dedicated fire tenders and other fire safety measures, specifically during the summer season, which is more prone to SLF and dump site fires,' said CAQM, adding periodic mock drills were needed to prevent recurrence of such incidents. The CAQM said municipal solid waste needed to be collected, segregated and processed in accordance with the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, and directed states to adopt zero tolerance towards open waste burning. Co-firing of paddy straw pellets beyond NCR: CAQM In a specific directive to districts outside NCR, the CAQM asked brick kilns to co-fire paddy straw-based pellets, setting a deadline of co-firing 50% of such pellets by November 1, 2028. The deadline is 20% co-firing of paddy straw-based pellets by November 1, 2025, and 30% by November 1, 2026, it said. The initiative aims to power such facilities, rather than relying on thermal plants. 'The state Governments of Punjab and Haryana have been instructed to issue requisite directions in this context mandating the above stipulation for use of paddy straw-based bio-mass pellets or briquettes in brick kilns located in non-NCR areas,' CAQM said in a statement, adding action taken in compliance with these directions will be apprised to the commission every month.
