South Korea Elects Lee Jae-myung President

TaiwanPlus News

South Korea elects Lee Jae-myung president in an election marked by months of political turmoil after ousted former president Yoon Suk Yeol's abortive declaration of martial law.

Transcript

00:00Lee Jae-myung takes to the stage as South Korea's president.

00:05It was a high-stakes three-way election,

00:07and Lee's left-leaning Democratic Party clinched it with around 50% of the vote.

00:11They won't be the opposition anymore.

00:16It's six months to the day that the last president,

00:19Yoon Seok-yeol, of the rival People Power Party,

00:22shocked the nation by declaring martial law.

00:24The crisis that followed led to Yoon's ouster.

00:27This chaos sparked strong feelings.

00:30And may have spurred the highest voter turnout in decades, at nearly 80%.

00:34Lee has pledged no more jolts.

00:36At the headquarters of the main rival People Power Party,

00:54subdued supporters clap, as their freshly defeated candidate, Kim Eun-soo, makes his own stage appearance.

01:10Though the past few months have seen bitter political wrangling, Kim's words are calm.

01:14I humbly accept the will of the people.

01:19I extend my congratulations to candidate Lee Jae-myung.

01:22I will never forget the people's overwhelming support and encouragement.

01:28But while the election is settled, the president may find the road ahead far from smooth.

01:34He's promised to bring a politically fractured country together.

01:37But even some of his supporters say that may not be easy.

01:40In this election, which served as a judgment on the insurrection crisis,

01:46the opposition should have won by a landslide.

01:49So while I'm pleased with the result, the fact that the margin wasn't overwhelmingly large

01:53also reminds me that we still face many challenges ahead.

01:56There's also the question of North Korea.

02:01The president says he'll look for dialogue, coexistence, and even shared prosperity.

02:05But how he'll manage that is another matter.

02:09And then there's the fact that the economy weighs just as heavily as the recent strife on many voters' minds,

02:15something several of them mentioned even before the election results came out.

02:18The economy has gotten really bad, and it's not just me, everyone's saying the same thing.

02:25I hope the economy improves.

02:27Also, the polarization of our society has become too extreme.

02:32U.S. tariffs are having a huge impact on us,

02:35and with the leadership seat currently vacant, we're in an urgent situation,

02:39especially when it comes to things like nuclear plant exports and tariff negotiations.

02:43So, the South Korean people have given their mandate,

02:47but they have expectations that could be tricky for the new administration to meet.

02:52Luffy Lee and John Van Trieste for Taiwan Plus.

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