Yoon Suk Yeol, a conservative opposition candidate, who had been a senior prosecutor, was elected as South Korea’s new president. The political novice defeated his key liberal rival Lee Jae-myung of Democratic Party in a neck and neck fight. Closest contest in South Korea’s history, his winning margin was just 1% over his rival. Yoon had polled 48.6 percent of the votes against his rival Jae-myung’s 47.8 percent.

The result is widely believed to be a referendum against the incumbent President Moon Jae-in’s governance. The progressive leader of the Democratic party’s failure to control rising housing prices, corruption scandals involving his allies and his inability to check neighbour North Korea’s nuclear weapons possibly led to his colleague’s defeat. Since the country prohibits a second term for a president, Moon didn’t contest in the election this time.

The both presidential candidates, however, seemed equally unpopular among the voters in opinion polls before the election and the contest was considered a choice between “unlikeables”.

Moon who had been hellbent on brokering peace with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and organised a number of talks including one in presence of US President Donald Trump in Panmunjom, a demilitarized zone in South Korea. Trump stamped Moon as a “weak leader” despite his efforts at peace. Early this year North Korea tested a series of missiles defying Moon’s overtures.

People Power Party’s Yoon wants to deal with North Korea more sternly and has said he will seek security cooperation with US and Japan against North’s constant threats. When North Korea tested another ballistic missile in the wake of South Korea’s election, he accused Kim Jong Un of trying to sway the election results in favour of Moon’s protégé Lee.

Yoon had stressed during the campaign saying “peace is meaningless unless it is backed by power” alluding to the fact that his new government will assert its position and “launch pre-emptive” strikes if required. If he practices what he’d been preaching, expect more fireworks in the Korean peninsula from both North and South.

READ MORE:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-60685141

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/09/world/asia/south-korea-election-yoon-suk-yeol.html

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/9/south-korean-opposition-candidate-yoon-wins-presidential-election

https://www.dw.com/en/south-korea-conservative-candidate-wins-presidential-election/a-61060084