{"id":276740,"date":"2025-04-08T06:32:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T06:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/08\/south-korea-sets-new-presidential-election-for-june-3\/"},"modified":"2025-04-08T06:32:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T06:32:06","slug":"south-korea-sets-new-presidential-election-for-june-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/08\/south-korea-sets-new-presidential-election-for-june-3\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea Sets New Presidential Election for June 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/04\/08\/multimedia\/08int-skorea-election-qglc\/08int-skorea-election-qglc-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"South Korea Sets New Presidential Election for June 3\" title=\"South Korea Sets New Presidential Election for June 3\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">South Korea said on Tuesday that it would hold a snap election on June 3 to choose the successor to former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/04\/world\/asia\/south-korea-removes-impeached-president.html\" title=\"\">was removed\u200b last week<\/a> for his attempt to impose martial law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The country\u2019s Constitutional Court formally dismissed Mr. Yoon on Friday when its eight justices unanimously endorsed his impeachment by the National Assembly in December.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">South Korea has since shifted its focus to the question of who should lead the country after months of political turmoil that have <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/05\/world\/asia\/south-korea-democracy-martial-law.html\" title=\"\">tested the resilience of its democracy<\/a> and weakened its leadership. By law, South Korea must elect a new president within 60 days of the court\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Monday, the government confirmed June 3 as Election Day, designating it as a national holiday to encourage voter turnout.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the coming days, the rival political parties will schedule primary races to select their presidential candidates by May 12, when the official campaign will start. Whoever wins the election will assume office immediately \u2014 without the country\u2019s typical two-month transition period.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Until then, South Korea must continue to deal with external challenges \u2014 including President Donald J. Trump\u2019s sweeping 25 percent tariff on its goods \u2014 under an unelected interim leader, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\"><a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/10\/world\/asia\/south-korea-lee-jae-myung-martial-law.html\" title=\"\">Lee Jae-myung<\/a>, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party who narrowly lost the 2022 election to Mr. Yoon, is widely expected to win his party\u2019s nomination, although several other politicians have expressed their intention to join its primary race.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lee was expected to step down as party chairman in the coming days so he could focus on \u200bhis presidential bid. In surveys in recent weeks, more South Koreans expressed wanting Mr. Lee as the next president, by a margin of \u200baround 25 percentage points. Mr. Lee is on trial on several criminal charges, including bribery, which he says Mr. Yoon\u2019s government filed with political motives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Who Mr. Yoon\u2019s conservative People Power Party will choose is a lot less clear. More than a dozen politicians\u200b, including Labor Minister Kim Moon Soo, have shown interest in competing, but no strong front-runner has emerged yet \u2014 in part because the party had until recently focused its efforts on retaining Mr. Yoon as president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Yoon\u2019s ouster was a crushing blow to the People Power Party: He was the second conservative president in a row to be ousted by impeachment and the third consecutive conservative president to face criminal indictment before or after their term ended. Mr. Yoon is also on trial on charges of committing insurrection when he sent troops to seize the National Assembly during his short-lived imposition of martial law in December.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The political crisis triggered by Mr. Yoon\u2019s ill-fated martial law and his subsequent impeachment have left South Korea in limbo at a time when North Korea has accelerated its nuclear ambitions and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/17\/world\/asia\/north-korea-russia-military-deal.html\" title=\"\">deepened military ties<\/a> with Russia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Constitutional Court\u2019s unanimous ruling has removed some political uncertainty. But the \u200bcrisis has exposed a deep-seated acrimony in South Korea\u2019s polarized politics, which will likely continue to surface during the presidential campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the past four months, the People Power Party <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/04\/world\/asia\/south-korea-yoon-conspiracy-theories.html\" title=\"\">has embraced a narrative<\/a> championed by right-wing YouTube influencers and Mr. Yoon, who have claimed that parliamentary elections in South Korea were rigged with the help of Chinese spies, and that progressive leaders like Mr. Lee were \u201canti-state forces\u201d who colluded with North Korea and China to undermine South Korea\u2019s alliance with the United States.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Lee\u2019s party accused its conservative rival of using a smear campaign to spread fear and hatred, and divert attention from Mr. Yoon\u2019s disastrous martial law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/07\/world\/asia\/south-korea-election.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Korea said on Tuesday that it would hold a snap election on June 3 to choose the successor to former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed\u200b last week for his attempt to impose martial law. The country\u2019s Constitutional Court formally dismissed Mr. Yoon on Friday when its eight justices unanimously endorsed his impeachment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/04\/08\/multimedia\/08int-skorea-election-qglc\/08int-skorea-election-qglc-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[50,67,204089,2821,3972,1359,210455,163230,137131,212,2584,6967,1512,163231],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276740"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276742,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276740\/revisions\/276742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}