Jung Yeon-je\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He has emphasized easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula while holding on to the longtime goal of denuclearizing North Korea; he also supports boosting small businesses and growing the AI industry. <\/p>\n
But Lee has also been dogged by legal cases, including several ongoing trials for alleged bribery and charges related to a property development scandal. <\/p>\n
Separately, he was convicted of violating election law in another ongoing case that has been sent to an appeals court. <\/p>\n
Lee\u2019s main rival is Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party (PPP). <\/p>\n
When Yoon left the party in May, he urged supporters to back Kim \u2013 a 73-year-old former labor minister, who had been a prominent labor activist at university, even being expelled and imprisoned for his protests. He eventually joined a conservative party, and stepped into the nomination after several rounds of party infighting. <\/p>\n
The PPP initially selected Kim as its candidate; then dropped him, eyeing former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo instead. The party finally chose Kim after he filed legal challenges. <\/p>\n
But the PPP remains deeply divided and its candidate trailed Lee in pre-election polling. In a statement after his nomination, Kim vowed to seek unity and build a \u201cbig tent\u201d coalition to take on Lee, according to Reuters. <\/p>\n
Kim has also promised to reform the country\u2019s politics, judiciary and election management systems to rebuild public trust. His campaign emphasized making South Korea business-friendly through tax cuts and eased restrictions, and by promoting new technologies and nuclear energy. <\/p>\n
Several third-party and independent candidates are also running for the presidency. They include Lee Jun-seok, a former PPP leader who founded his own conservative New Reform Party last year. <\/p>\n
At the forefront of voters\u2019 minds is the country\u2019s flailing economy and rising cost of living. Youth unemployment has surged and consumption has declined, with the economy unexpectedly contracting in the first quarter of this year. <\/p>\n
Part of that is due to Trump\u2019s trade war \u2013 which has hit South Korea\u2019s export-reliant economy hard. South Korea\u2019s exports to the US fell sharply in the first few weeks of April after US tariffs kicked in, and the nation\u2019s largest airline has warned the downturn could cost it up to $100 million a year. <\/p>\n
Though officials from both nations have met for tariff talks, the political turmoil at home is likely slowing progress and hampering a possible trade deal until a new South Korean president is elected. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s why both main candidates have focused on the economy, promising to stabilize the cost of goods and improve opportunities in housing, education and jobs. <\/p>\n
But there\u2019s a host of other problems the next president will have to tackle, too \u2013 such as the country\u2019s rapidly aging society and plummeting birth rates, which represent an urgent demographic crisis also seen in other countries in the region like Japan and China. Among the common complaints of young couples and singles are the high cost of childcare, gender inequality and discrimination against working parents. <\/p>\n
Then there are regional tensions. There\u2019s the ever-present threat from North Korea, which has rapidly modernized its armed forces, developing new weapons and testing intercontinental ballistic missiles that can reach almost anywhere in the United States. Experts have warned in recent years that the country may also be preparing to resume nuclear tests, which it paused in 2018. <\/p>\n
Across the Yellow Sea lies China, which South Korea has a strong trade relationship with \u2013 but historically fraught diplomatic relations. <\/p>\n
South Korea also maintains a close security alliance with the US, and hosts nearly 30,000 American troops in the country. In recent years, South Korea, Japan and the US have drawn closer together, working to counter Chinese influence in the strategically important Asia-Pacific region. <\/p>\n
Yoon was removed from office in April following months of legal wrangling, after parliament voted to impeach him late last year. <\/p>\n
It was a remarkable fall from grace for the former prosecutor turned politician, who rose to prominence for his role in the impeachment of another president \u2013 only to eventually meet the same fate. <\/p>\n
Soon after, Yoon moved out from the presidential residency and into an apartment in the capital Seoul. But his legal battles are ongoing; he faces charges including insurrection, an offense punishable by life imprisonment or death (though South Korea has not executed anyone in decades). Yoon denies all charges against him. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n
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After half a year of political turmoil, uncertainty and division, South Korea will vote for a new president to succeed Yoon Suk Yeol, the disgraced former leader who plunged the democratic nation into chaos by declaring martial law in December. This election feels particularly significant; the country, a US ally and Asian economic and cultural…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}