Seoul, 3 June 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Left-wing politician Lee Jae Myung is leading in the presidential election in South Korea, according to initial media projections.

Public broadcaster KBS said the 60-year-old currently has 51.7% of the vote, while his conservative opponent Kim Moon Soo has 39.3%.

However, the ratios could still change during the counting process and a definitive result is not expected until about midnight (1500 GMT Tuesday).

Former human rights lawyer Lee Jae Myung is in favour of expanding renewable energy production, strengthening workers' rights and pursuing a foreign policy of rapprochement with China and North Korea.

South Korean politics is deeply divided and the two candidates offered the country's 44 million eligible voters very different visions for the future.

They are bidding to replace Yoon Suk Yeol, who declared martial law in early December after a budget dispute. He justified the radical move by claiming, among other things, that the left-wing opposition had been infiltrated by communist and anti-state forces.

Photo: epa