South Korea’s leading presidential contenders, Lee Jae-myung of the opposition Democratic Party and Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party, faced off Sunday night in the first of three nationally televised debates, as the race heats up ahead of the June 3 snap election triggered by the ouster of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, as per Al Jazeera.
Yoon was removed from office by the Constitutional Court in April following widespread outrage over his attempt to impose martial law in December, a move condemned by critics as an unconstitutional power grab. The abrupt collapse of his administration has thrown the country into political turmoil, setting the stage for a fiercely contested presidential race.
During the two-hour debate, frontrunner Lee Jae-myung, who currently leads in the polls with 51 percent support, defended his balanced approach to foreign policy. He rejected accusations from Kim and other critics that he was too soft on China, reiterating that South Korea should not be drawn into a potential China-Taiwan conflict and should instead pursue pragmatism over ideology in global affairs.
“Our alliance with the United States is vital,” Lee said, “but we should not go all-in. Managing our relationships with China and Russia is equally important.”
Lee also voiced support for denuclearising the Korean Peninsula, expanding AI and green energy industries, and protecting workers’ rights. Notably, he proposed a four-and-a-half-day workweek and pledged to develop a sovereign Korean AI system, promising that citizens should be able to access tools like ChatGPT “freely, like a calculator.”
He warned against rushing into a new trade deal with the United States, amid ongoing negotiations for an exemption from 25 percent tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump in April.
Trailing in the latest Gallup Korea poll with 29 percent, Kim Moon-soo took aim at Lee’s economic proposals and foreign policy positioning, portraying himself as a pro-business reformer. He promised to create a dedicated agency to overhaul government regulations and to allocate over 5 percent of the national budget to research and development.
“We must foster innovation, support businesses, and create jobs,” Kim said. “South Korea must lead in cutting-edge industries, not fall behind due to overregulation.”
The debate came as Asia’s fourth-largest economy reels from a first-quarter contraction driven by falling exports and sluggish consumption. The political uncertainty sparked by Yoon’s martial law declaration and removal from office has only intensified investor unease.
Yoon claimed the military order was necessary to counter antistate and pro-North Korean actors within the government. However, senior security officials have since testified that he ordered the arrest of rival lawmakers and the shutdown of the National Assembly to block efforts to repeal his emergency measures.
Earlier Sunday, Lee called for sweeping constitutional changes, including a shift to a four-year, two-term presidency and the introduction of a two-round voting system—a break from South Korea’s current single five-year presidential term. He also vowed to restrict the executive’s power to declare martial law.
“We must ensure that what happened under Yoon never happens again,” Lee said.
