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Here’s where things stand on Tuesday 3 June 2025:
- Voters in South Korea are choosing a successor to former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was impeached and removed from office over his brief, ill-fated declaration of martial law in December.
- Opinion polls favour Lee Jae-myung of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea over Kim Moon-soo of the governing conservative People Power Party.
- Polls opened at 6am (21:00 GMT on Monday) and will close at 8pm (19:00 GMT).
- About 44.4 million people in the country of 52 million are eligible to vote. Koreans overseas have already cast their ballots, and early voting took place on Thursday and Friday.
‘Rebellion forces’, ‘Hitler-like’: Lee and Kim trade strong barbs in final campaign speeches
In his last campaign speech on Monday, frontrunner Lee said a win by his closest, yet trailing, rival for the post of president would mean the return of “rebellion forces” to political life in South Korea, the Associated Press (AP) news agency reports.
“If they somehow win, that would mean the return of the rebellion forces, the destruction of democracy, the deprival of people’s human rights, the normalisation of martial law and our country’s downfall into a backward, third-world nation,” Lee said, referring to Kim and the PPP – the party of removed former president Yoon who was impeached for declaring martial law.
In his last speech, Kim said Lee would centralise excessive power in a “Hitler-like dictatorship” if he were to win the presidency, AP said.
As Lee’s Democratic Party already controls parliament, Kim claimed his rival would embark on political retaliation against his opponents once in the president’s office and would pass legislation to protect himself from various legal troubles.
Lee “is now trying to seize all power in South Korea and establish a Hitler-like dictatorship”, Kim told a rally in the southeastern city of Busan.
Close to half of eligible voters have now cast their ballots
It is just after 10am in South Korea (01:00 GMT), and four hours into the opening of polling stations, national voter turnout today is now at 13.5 percent.
The right-leaning region of Daegu is still in the lead, with 17 percent turnout, on election day. Left-leaning Gwangju is lowest at 9.5 percent, while Seoul is at 12.5 percent.
This means that more than 6 million people have voted today, and brings the total vote turnout, including early and overseas voting, to 48.24 percent.
Who is Kim Moon-soo?
The 73-year-old is a hardline conservative who served as Yoon’s labour minister.
He emerged as a potential standard-bearer of the embattled South Korean conservatives after he solely defied a request by a Democratic Party lawmaker for all Cabinet members to stand and bow at the assembly in a gesture of apology over Yoon’s decree.
Kim won the PPP’s nomination in early May.
But the party’s leaders tried to replace him with former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, an independent who was more popular in polls. And on the eve of the party’s campaign launch, they even cancelled Kim’s candidacy, only to reinstate him after party members opposed the move.
Kim was a prominent labour and pro-democracy activist in the 1970 and 80s, when South Korea was ruled by military-backed leaders. He was expelled from Seoul National University, the country’s top school, worked at factories to promote labour rights, and spent two and a half years in prison for his anti-government activities.
He switched his ideology in 1994 and joined a conservative party, saying he abandoned his dream to become “a revolutionist” after observing the collapse of communist states.
He has previously served as the governor of the populous Gyeonggi province for eight years and as a member of the National Assembly for three terms.
You can read more here.
Voting for ‘some stability’ as ‘current situation is not acceptable’
After voting in Seoul’s Mok-dong district, an upper-middle class neighbourhood known for its abundance of “hagwons” – private institutions where students prepare for university entrance exams or to get into prestigious high schools – Sue Jang, 51, said she wanted to see stability return to South Korea.
“I voted today as I think the current situation is not acceptable. Our country is in a very negative space, and I hope we get to see some stability after this election,” Sue said.
Sue said her family members had already cast their ballots in early voting and she would be watching the vote count and results late into the night.
Who is Lee Jae-myung?
The 61-year-old lost the last presidential election to Yoon by the slimmest margin in South Korea’s democratic history.
He went on to lead the Democratic Party to a landslide victory in last year’s parliamentary election and was the driving force behind the opposition-led campaign to remove Yoon from office.
During the six hours of martial law, Lee climbed the walls of the National Assembly to avoid the security cordons deployed on Yoon’s orders. He livestreamed his exploit, urging supporters to come to parliament and demonstrate against Yoon’s move. And despite troop blockades, legislators gathered a quorum and unanimously voted to lift martial law.
Lee later led an assembly vote to impeach Yoon before the Constitutional Court formally threw him out of office in early April.
The human rights lawyer-turned-politician served as governor of South Korea’s most populous Gyeonggi province, and mayor of Seongnam city, near Seoul.
Last year, he survived a knife attack in the southern city of Busan while touring the site of a proposed new airport and speaking to journalists and supporters.
Lee faces five ongoing trials for corruption and other criminal charges.
Most of his ongoing cases have been postponed by the courts until after the election and he has denied any wrongdoing, insisting the charges are politically motivated.
You can read more here.
More than 2 million votes cast already this morning
As of 8am (23:00 GMT, Monday), the national voter turnout sits at 5.7 percent, with 2.53 million voters having cast their ballots this morning.
By region, conservative-leaning Daegu has the highest turnout so far today, with 7.1 percent.
It is followed by the liberal stronghold North Jeolla, with 6.7 percent, and the swing regions of Daejeon and South Chungcheong, with 5.4 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively.
Turnout so far in Seoul, a swing region which tends to lean liberal, is 5.3 percent.
Gwangju, another liberal stronghold, displays the lowest voter turnout rate, with 3.9 percent.
The election morning turnout so far, comes after strong early voting in liberal strongholds last week.
Conservative voters failed to capitalise on early voting: Analyst
In the run-up to the election, Al Jazeera spoke to Lim Woon-taek, a sociology professor at Keimyung University and a former member of the Presidential Commission on Policy Planning.
Lim noted that in the two days of early voting last week on Thursday and Friday, liberal strongholds – which are likely to favour the opposition candidate Lee Jae-myung – including in the provinces of North and South Jeolla and cities such as Gwangju and Sejong, recorded the highest early-voter turnouts.
On the other hand, conservative voter bases – likely to vote for the governing People Power Party’s (PPP) Kim Moon-soo – such as Daegu and Busan cities and North and South Gyeongsang provinces, had the lowest figures for early voting.
The PPP had likely shot themselves in the foot by not rallying their supporters for early voting, Lim said.
“The PPP side, they were the ones who brought forward accusations of election fraud and put a negative image on early voting. They tried to reverse their statements to rally crowds to the voting stations last week, but it was too late,” Lim said.
“Even in the past, voters for liberal candidates have traditionally been more active on early voting days,” he said.
Supporters of liberal candidates are also “strongly driven to see the perpetrators of the martial law crisis” face justice, he added.
Government held emergency US tariffs meeting on election eve
The Yonhap news agency is reporting that South Korea’s government held an emergency meeting on Monday night on United States President Donald Trump’s plans to double steel tariffs.
Trump announced last week that the US would increase its import tax on South Korean steel to 50 percent from this Wednesday, one day after South Korea’s presidential election.
South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, which hosted officials from major steel companies at the emergency meeting, said it would work through trade negotiations with Washington to minimise the negative impact on local industry, Yonhap reported.
One million people cast votes in first hour
According to the National Election Commission, 2.4 percent, or 1,079,256 of the 44,391,871 registered voters, cast their ballots between 6am and 7am this morning.
The total turnout, including early voting and overseas voting, is now at 37.14 percent as of 7am.
Voters in mood to punish governing party after martial law chaos
Lee Jae-myung, the opposition leader, is leading the polls by a wide margin, after rising from humble origins.
Lee survived an assassination attempt last year, and has been trying to convince voters that he is the man to heal the nation after months of chaos.
But he faces many legal cases over allegations of misuse of public funds, lying on the campaign trail and trying to funnel millions of dollars to Pyongyang in an attempt to get an invitation to visit North Korea.
These allegations have been the campaign focus for governing party candidate Kim Moon-soo, who has tried very hard to distance his party from the state of martial war.
There’s been surprisingly little focus on the big economic and security challenges this country faces.
And according to polling organisation Gallup Korea, that’s because progressives, swing voters and even some conservatives are really in the mood to judge and punish the governing party.
Photos: First voters cast ballots in Seoul’s Munrae-dong area
Nearly 30,000 police stationed at polling booths
South Korea’s National Police Agency has said it will station 28,590 police officers across 14,295 polling stations, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Yonhap police said they would maintain the “highest level of emergency security”, with all police personnel on standby from when polls opened at 6am this morning (21:00 GMT Monday) until the newly elected president enters office.
The high alert level comes amid a heightened political environment in the aftermath of former President Yoon Suk-yeol declaring martial law.
In January, police used ladders to climb into then-President Yoon’s compound, as thousands of his supporters gathered outside, after he failed to appear at an impeachment hearing.
Photos: Kim Moon-soo’s election eve campaign rally
Supporters gather outside before the event starts
South Korea’s presidential election aims to restore democratic credentials
After six hours of emergency martial law, hundreds of days of protests, violence at a Seoul court and the eventual impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea is now hours away from choosing a new leader in the hope of restoring stability to an unsettled nation.
The expelled former president last week attended his fifth court hearing where he faces charges of leading an insurrection and abusing power due to his failed imposition of martial law on December 3.
If convicted, Yoon could face a maximum penalty of life in prison or even the death sentence.
Participation in the election is predicted to be at an all-time high amid the political turmoil resulting from the brief imposition of military rule, which still resonates in every corner of society and has sharply divided the country along political lines.
There are those who still support Yoon and those who vehemently oppose his martial law decision.
You can read more here.
Photos: Lee Jae-myung’s supporters rally on election eve
When will the results be announced?
South Korea’s National Election Commission says projections for the winner may come near midnight (15:00 GMT).
In 2022, Yoon was projected to win about 2am and was officially declared the winner at 4:40am (19:00 GMT) in the country’s closest presidential race ever.
In 2017, Moon Jae-in was projected the winner about 10pm (09:00 GMT) because he had a much clearer path to victory.
Exit polls will be announced about 8:10pm (11:00 GMT), based on 100,000 voters from 325 polling stations.
Polls open in South Korea
It is now 6am in South Korea.
Voters can now begin casting their ballots for their next leader at 14,295 polling stations across the country.
Who are the main candidates?
There are five candidates on the ballot, but the main contenders are Lee Jae-myung of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DP), and Kim Moon-soo of the governing conservative People Power Party (PPP).
Lee is the favourite to win. In three Gallup Korea surveys released last week, 46 percent to 49 percent of respondents picked Lee as their choice for next president, giving him a comfortable lead over Kim with 35 percent to 37 percent.
Trailing in third is another conservative candidate, the New Reform Party’s Lee Jun-seok, on 9 percent to 11 percent.
There are no women in the final lineup, a first since 2007.
What time do polls open and close?
Election day is a public holiday in South Korea.
Polling stations across the country will open at 6am (21:00 GMT on Monday) and close at 8pm (19:00 GMT).
Counting will begin immediately, and the winner will be known this evening or early on Wednesday. The candidate who receives the most votes will be deemed the winner and will be sworn in on Wednesday.
Why is South Korea holding a snap election?
It all boils down to one thing – Yoon Suk-yeol’s botched martial law decree.
The former president, who narrowly won the last presidential election in 2022, was supposed to serve for five years. But his declaration of martial law on December 3 – which brought armed soldiers onto Seoul’s streets, evoking traumatic memories of past military rule – prompted the opposition-controlled National Assembly to impeach him that same month.
The Constitutional Court upheld the decision on April 4 in a move that obliged the country’s caretaker leaders to call a presidential election within 60 days.
Yoon has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing.
He has described his decree as a legitimate act of governance meant to raise public awareness of the danger of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, which obstructed his agenda and impeached top officials.
The decree lasted only six hours as enough legislators, including from Yoon’s party, managed to enter the parliament house and vote it down.
It unleashed political chaos, however, including mass protests, a riot at a courthouse and three caretaker leaders in six months.
Welcome to our coverage
Hello and thank you for joining our live coverage of South Korea’s snap presidential election.
Stay with Al Jazeera’s Live team as we bring you all the latest developments, analysis and reactions through election day and beyond.
