Latest news with #KimDae-jung
Korea Herald
5 days ago
- Business
- Korea Herald
Voter turnout exceeds 79%, highest in 28 years
More than 79 percent of eligible voters had cast their ballots by the time polls closed on Tuesday, marking the highest turnout since the 1997 presidential election, according to the National Election Commission. The polls were open between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Election Day — two hours longer than usual, as stipulated for early elections. Including last week's two days of early voting, 35,240,416 out of 44,391,871 eligible voters cast their ballots, amounting to 79.4 percent, the NEC reported. The turnout was 2.3 percentage points higher than during the same period in the 2022 presidential election. By region, Gwangju posted the highest turnout at 83.9 percent, while Jeju Province recorded the lowest at 74.6 percent. Seoul reported 80.1 percent turnout. South Korea marked its highest voter turnout in 1987 at 89.2 percent — the same year direct presidential elections were introduced under the reforms of the 1987 Constitution. The last time turnout exceeded 80 percent was in 1997, when 80.7 percent of voters participated and opposition leader Kim Dae-jung defeated ruling party candidate Lee Hoi-chang. Turnout then steadily declined, falling as low as 63 percent in 2007. It only rebounded to 77.1 percent in 2022, when then-candidate Yoon Suk Yeol defeated Lee Jae-myung, who was this election's front-runner. The June 3 election was held to fill the leadership vacuum triggered by the impeachment and removal of former President Yoon, following his controversial declaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024. Of all eligible voters, 34.74 percent cast their ballots in early voting last week on Thursday and Friday — the second-highest early voting turnout recorded in a presidential race, just behind the 36.93 percent logged in the 2022 presidential election. The early turnout figure also includes overseas, absentee and onboard voting. After the polls closed, ballot boxes were transported to counting centers, where vote counting began immediately. The NEC projected that 70 to 80 percent of votes would be counted by midnight, likely providing a clear indication of the winner. In the closely contested 2022 election, Yoon emerged as the clear winner at around 2 a.m. the next day. In the 2017 election, Moon Jae-in's lead was evident as early as 10 p.m. on election night. Detailed turnout information is available on the NEC's official website at
Korea Herald
5 days ago
- Politics
- Korea Herald
Voter turnout exceeds 18% as of 11 a.m., higher than 2022 election
More than 18 percent of eligible voters had cast their ballots as of 11 a.m. Tuesday, 2.3 percent higher than the previous election held in 2022, according to the National Election Commission. Polling stations opened at 6 a.m. and will remain open until 8 p.m. — two hours longer than usual — as this is an early election. The June 3 election was held to fill the leadership vacuum triggered by the impeachment and removal of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, following his controversial declaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024. The 11 a.m. turnout figure does not include early voting, which took place last Thursday and Friday. A total of 15,423,607 people, or 34.74 percent of eligible voters, cast their ballots early — the second-highest early turnout ever recorded for a presidential race, just behind the 36.93 percent logged in the 2017 election. This year, 44,391,871 people are eligible to vote, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the NEC. Once polls close at 8 p.m., ballot boxes will be transported to counting centers, where vote counting will begin immediately. Attention has been paid to whether this election could surpass previous turnout records. Between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m., turnout was slightly higher than during the same window in the 2022 presidential election. Among regions, Daegu recorded the highest early turnout with 23.1 percent, while South Jeolla Province saw the lowest with 12.5 percent. Seoul reported 17.1 percent. The highest turnout ever recorded in a South Korean presidential election was 80.7 percent in 1997 when opposition leader Kim Dae-jung defeated ruling party candidate Lee Hoi-chang. The NEC projects that 70 to 80 percent of votes will be counted by midnight, likely providing a clear indication of the winner. In the closely contested 2022 election, Yoon Suk Yeol emerged as the frontrunner around 2 a.m. the next day. In the 2017 election, Moon Jae-in's lead was evident as early as 10 p.m. on election night. Turnout updates are available in real time on the NEC's official website:
Korea Herald
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Korea Herald
South Korea's controversial 'first kids'
Children of Korean presidents who've received the most public flak Moon Da-hye, 41, daughter of former President Moon Jae-in, has recently found herself in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. Last week, she was indicted by the prosecutors without detention, accused of driving under the influence of alcohol in October last year. She was also referred to the prosecution one month later on suspicions of operating an Airbnb on Jeju Island in 2022, without officially registering as a business. Being a 'first kid,' or a child of a president, is not easy, and it comes with significant pressures. But while some have managed to stay out of the limelight or even use their privileges for what is deemed to be good, others have drawn public flak for their actions. Here is a list of presidential sons and daughters who have been the subject of controversy. Kim Hong-gul, Kim Dae-jung's youngest son Late President Kim Dae-jung's youngest son, Kim Hong-gul, was 39 when he was arrested and indicted in 2002 for accepting $3.67 billion ($2.52 million) won worth of bribery from businesspeople. Kim was bribed to help several businesspeople secure contracts for government-led projects, as his father was in office at the time. This case sent shockwaves throughout the country, as his father, Kim Dae-jung, was world-renowned for defending human rights in Korea, having won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his work for democracy here, and for peace and reconciliation with North Korea. Kim Hong-geol was later sentenced to 18 months in prison with two years of probation. He was also ordered to pay a fine of 160 million won ($110,100). In 2005, he was reinstated by then-President Roh Moo-hyun through a presidential pardon. More than a decade later, in 2020, Kim Hong-gul decided to run for the National Assembly as a liberal candidate. In the process of registering as a candidate, he filed a false declaration in regard to his assets, by failing to report the pre-sale rights he acquired to an apartment in Gangdong-gu, Seoul. A Seoul court ordered him to pay a fine of 800,000 won for breaching the Public Official Election Act. Still, he was elected as a proportional representative for the Democratic Party of Korea in the general election, which took place in April. Most recently, Kim made headlines last year for selling off his father's estate in Donggyo-dong, a site of historical significance, for some 10 billion won ($6.87 million), to a group of local businesspeople. He told local news outlet JTBC that he had no choice but to sell it due to the 'hefty inheritance tax' he had to pay. The home had been where Kim Dae-jung spent his combined 183 days under house arrest imposed by both the military dictatorship regimes of Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan for speaking out in favor of democracy. Park Ji-man, Park Chung-hee's only son Park Ji-man, the only son of the late President Park Chung-hee and younger brother to impeached former President Park Geun-hye, had been known for being handsome when he was a student at the Korea Military Academy in the late '70s. At that time, it seemed to some like he might be in line to carry on his father's legacy as a military strongman. But his troubles started in the late '80s when he started making headlines due to drug-related offenses, nearly a decade after his father was assassinated by KCIA head Kim Jae-kyu in 1979. The younger Park was arrested and charged with using illegal drugs a total of six times from 1989 to 2002 and received medical treatment while in custody multiple times. He also served jail time twice. Court documents showed that he habitually used illegal drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamines, commonly known as meth or philopon in Korea. He often hired prostitutes to join him in the act, according to the same court documents. It seemed like the troubled son of the authoritarian president had managed to stay out of the spotlight for some time until 2011, when Shin Dong-wook, his brother-in-law, accused Park Ji-man of orchestrating a murder attempt. Shin, who is the husband of Park Geun-hye's younger sister, Park Geun-ryeong, claimed that both Park Ji-man and Park Geun-hye had ordered their followers to kidnap and murder him in China in 2007. Prosecutors indicted Shin on charges of defamation against the Park siblings in 2010. The Supreme Court in 2012 handed down an 18-month prison sentence to Shin, finding him guilty of defamation. When Park Geun-hye was impeached in 2016 and later imprisoned for bribery and abuse of power, her now 66-year-old youngest brother voiced support for his sister. Chun Jae-yong, Chun Doo-hwan's second son All four children of former President and military dictator Chun Doo-hwan have been mired in controversy, mostly related to the obscure origins of their wealth. In 2007, Chun Jae-yong, the second son of the former president, was handed down a prison sentence of two and a half years, with a three-year probation for tax evasion. A Seoul court also fined him 2.8 billion won in the case, which was sent back by the Supreme Court. The unpaid taxes were tied to some 7.3 billion won worth of government-issued national housing bonds inherited from his father. When he had been managing the bonds, he had stolen the identity of a homeless person to open an account at a brokerage firm in a bid to avoid authorities' monitoring. Chun Jae-yong received another prison sentence for a separate tax evasion case in 2015. The Supreme Court sentenced him to three years in prison with a four-year stay of execution for colluding with his uncle to avoid 2.7 billion won in taxes when selling a plot of land in Gyeonggi Province in 2006. He was slapped with a 4 billion won fine as well. At the time, the prosecution had been investigating the Chun family as part of government efforts to reclaim the fortune of the former president, who had been convicted of taking bribes while in office in the 1980s, as well as numerous other charges, including leading an insurrection and committing homicide. Chun Doo-hwan, who seized power in a military coup in 1979, was ordered by the Supreme Court in 1997 to return to state coffers the 220.5 billion won he had accumulated illegally while in office from 1981 to 1988. He had refused to make most of the payment, claiming he was almost penniless. Chun Jae-yong's son Chun Woo-won, aged 29, attracted widespread media attention in 2023 after making a series of public accusations about irregularities and slush funds involving his family members on social media. He was then indicted by prosecutors for drug-related offenses. According to them, he took four types of drugs, including ecstasy and ketamine, during his stay in the US in 2022. An appellate court recently handed him a prison sentence of two and a half years with probation of four years, upholding a lower court's decision.
