South Korea

South Korea’s presidential election on 3 June 2025 took place amid intense political upheaval and institutional crisis. Widespread public discontent over corruption scandals, executive-judiciary tensions, and democratic backsliding had dominated the pre-election atmosphere. The victory of Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung sends a strong signal about the public’s expectations for reform, stability, and credible leadership, in a context of rising regional and global tensions, challenges to multilateralism, and growing pressure on liberal democracies. We asked 3 questions to Kristian Brakel, Director of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung’s East Asia | Global Dialogue office in Seoul.

On 10 April 2024, South Korea held its 22nd general election, which marked the highest ever turnout for a parliamentary election. Voters used the election as an opportunity to issue a verdict on the first two years of the right-wing conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol’s five-year term. Giving the opposition one of the biggest parliamentary majorities in recent decades, voters pushed the president, who has inappropriately exercised his presidential veto power on bills passed by the parliament, to the verge of being a lame duck. This article analyses the driving forces behind these results, suggests implications for Yoon’s foreign policy and explains the challenges that the election results have created for progressives in South Korea.

In Singapore and South Korea, fact-checking initiatives have been effective in fighting Covid-19 disinformation. But other tactics – like confusing or overly broad laws – could be used to maintain political power.