Liberal opposition candidate Lee Jae-myung elected president of South Korea
South Korean media outlets including Yonhap news agency and SBS television station reported early on Wednesday that Mr Lee has won the election.
The main conservative candidate Kim Moon Soo earlier conceded defeat.
The victory would cap months of political turmoil triggered by the stunning but brief imposition of martial law by now-ousted conservative leader Yoon Suk Yeol.
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Reuters
16 hours ago
- Reuters
South Korean conservatives looking for rebirth after election loss
SEOUL, June 6 (Reuters) - South Korea's right is looking to remake itself after a massive defeat in this week's snap presidential election that left it with little power to challenge the ruling Democratic Party. New leader Lee Jae-myung and his party now control parliament and the presidency with Tuesday's polls exposing the smouldering resentment in South Korea over former President Yoon Suk Yeol's botched martial law declaration in December. The attempt at military rule led to Yoon's removal from office and the eventual defeat of the conservative People Power Party, which was unable to overcome divisions within the right and unify around a single candidate. The defeat has left conservative leaders pointing fingers and trading blame as the party searches for a new direction. On Thursday the PPP's floor leader, lawmaker Kweon Seong-dong, stepped down and called for the party to wipe the slate clean and rebuild the conservative movement. "This defeat in the presidential election is not simply a judgment on martial law and the impeachment of the president," he said. "It is a painful reprimand to the divisions of the ruling People Power Party." The party's presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo was unable to convince Lee Jun-seok, the nominee from the minor conservative Reform Party, to drop out, likely splitting at least some of the vote. Former labour minister Kim won 41.15% of the vote and Lee Jun-Seok won 8.34%, to winner Lee Jae-myung's 49.42%. A controversial figure for championing anti-feminist concerns and wielding support among young men, Lee Jun-seok was briefly the leader of the PPP, and had helped Yoon narrowly win the 2022 presidential election. He later clashed with Yoon and was ousted from the PPP. Lee told reporters on Tuesday that the PPP should have focused on reform rather than unifying candidates. "That's the challenge given to pan-conservatives," he said. Kim blamed infighting during the primary process that led to him filing legal challenges against the PPP after then-acting President Han Duck-soo resigned to contest the elections despite the party selecting Kim as its candidate. The two men spent a week clashing over efforts to form a unity ticket. "We picked our candidate in a way that even a small child thinks doesn't make sense... I think we need deep soul-searching and reform," Kim said on Wednesday as he kneeled in apology to party members and the public. Others pointed to the PPP's failure to fully separate itself from Yoon's unpopular and unconstitutional martial law. "They failed to draw in moderate voters," said political commentator Park Sangbyoung. "Instead, Yoon Suk Yeol sided with far-right ideas, and Kim Moon-soo, who has a history of working with far-right groups, was their candidate." Park said the "complete downfall" of the conservatives could damage Korean politics. "To be a true opposing force against the Lee administration, they need to be reborn, even resorting to blowing up the party and creating a new one," Park said. South Korea's conservatives have staged unlikely comebacks before. Yoon is the second conservative president in a row to be removed from office, after Park Geun-hye was impeached and jailed in a corruption scandal in 2017. Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University, said "until they clear the mess inside" it will be difficult for the right to stand up to Lee. "Rather than crisis of conservatives, I would call it the falling of People Power Party because of its leadership that runs the party based on self-interests, not fundamental values," he said. In the wake of Yoon's impeachment, then-PPP leader Han Dong-hoon promised that the president would resign and the party would help lead an interim government. When Yoon and his backers rejected that plan and fought his removal, it divided the party and led to Han's resignation. On Wednesday Han, who unsuccessfully ran for the PPP nomination, said the party needs to cooperate with the new liberal administration on economy and security but it must not compromise on challenging any effort by the ruling party to "destroy the judiciary system". The PPP has accused the Democratic Party of trying to pass bills that they say are meant to shield President Lee, who faces a slew of corruption charges, from any further legal troubles. "Please do not give up," Han said. "It is the last chance to end the same old politics and to establish politics that put the people first." Lawmaker Park Jeong-hoon said in a Facebook post that the party must change if it wants to survive. "We must tear down our house and rebuild it. This is not a matter of factions but a matter of the party's survival."
NBC News
a day ago
- NBC News
Boulder attack suspect to appear in court as family remains in ICE detention
The suspect in the Boulder firebombing will appear in Colorado court on Thursday, as an attorney for his family, who are in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, calls for their release. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, a 45-year-old Egyptian national who entered the country legally in 2022, has a return-of-filing charges hearing in Boulder County court at 3:30 p.m. local time (5:30 p.m. ET) in connection with the June 1 antisemitic attack at Pearl Street pedestrian mall. This hearing typically occurs before the preliminary hearing or arraignment. Soliman is accused of using a "makeshift flamethrower" and Molotov cocktails on a group of people peacefully calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. The attack injured at least 15 people, ranging in age from 25 to 88, and one dog, prosecutors said in an update Wednesday. Soliman faces state charges of attempted first-degree murder after deliberation, attempted first-degree murder with extreme indifference, first-degree assault, including against an at-risk victim older than 70, and possession of an incendiary device. Separately, Soliman was charged with a federal hate crime on Monday. The White House on Tuesday announced that Soliman's wife and five children were taken into ICE custody " for expedited removal." Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on X that the department was investigating "to what extent" Soliman's family knew about the attack or supported it. A federal judge on Wednesday issued an order preventing the deportation of the wife and children. They have not been charged in connection with the Pearl Street attack. Soliman is an Egyptian national who entered the country on a B2 visa, typically issued to tourists, in August 2022. The following month, he filed for asylum with his family as dependents, according to the Department of Homeland Security and court documents. While his visa expired in February 2023, Soliman had not yet exhausted all legal options to stay in the U.S. An attorney for Soliman's wife, Hayam El Gamal, told NBC News that she and her kids are at the Dilley family detention center in Texas. "There is no precedent in the history of the United States for the type of collective family-based punishment that the Trump administration is doling out on this family," the attorney, Eric Lee, told NBC's Morgan Chesky. 'It's extremely dangerous, and it's something that should concern every single person that's watching,' he added. "You can imagine the shock that they were in when they learned the charges that were being brought against their father or husband, and then suddenly to find themselves being whisked away in the dark of night, out of their home state of Colorado to a new place in a detention center, huddled together without really any idea about whether they were going to be sent to a country from which they had applied for the right to asylum," Lee continued. Lee said the kids include two 4-year-olds, an 8-year-old, a 15-year-old, and a 17-year-old. Lee said the government previously said the eldest child is 18, which is wrong. He said he's sought habeas relief to protect the family from being removed. Lee said he hasn't had the opportunity to speak to the family in depth, as calls were cut off after a few minutes twice yesterday. "One could only imagine what this family is going through. They've done absolutely nothing wrong," he said.
Spectator
a day ago
- Spectator
Is South Korea's new firebrand president up to the job?
Much akin to Britain on 4 July last year, South Korea is now veering leftwards. Seoul only had a protracted two-and-a-half, and not fourteen, years of conservative rule by a leader who declared martial law on a cold winter evening last December. But at a time when security in East Asia is increasingly precarious, the election of Lee Jae-myung as South Korea's fourteenth president does not bode well for the future if the firebrand's past statements are anything to go by. For a man who had ambitions to be as 'successful as Bernie Sanders' – a comparison which is hardly a point of pride – it was third time lucky. His failed presidential bids in 2017 and 2022 are now confined to the history books. The South Korean population voted for change after six months of polarising protests in support of and against Lee's infamous predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol. These were triggered by his abortive declaration of martial law on 3 December. This election was overshadowed by that December day, without which there would have been no vote.
