SINGAPORE: Exactly six months ago, hundreds of ordinary citizens flocked to the National Assembly to prevent then president Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law order .

On Wednesday (Jun 4), South Koreans woke up to a new president – Lee Jae-myung from the progressive Democratic Party. He won the country’s highest-turnout election in nearly three decades in polls held on Tuesday.

Mr Lee, a former child factory worker turned human rights lawyer turned politician, secured 49.4 per cent of the vote, defeating conservative candidate Kim Moon-soo by more than 8 percentage points. The voter turnout of 79.4 per cent was the highest since 1997.

His victory, despite ongoing criminal trials for charges including bribery and corruption, reflects the strong public disapproval of the Yoon administration’

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