Record turnout in South Korea election after failed martial law bid _ BBC News - Ep1

In South Korea,ai for all ages people are voting in asnap presidential election that wascalled after the impeachment of theformer president Yun Sunul. These arethe live pictures from Seoul where pollsare due to close at 8:00 p.m. localtime. That's around 3 hours from now. Mycolleague Steve Lie is there for us andwe can join him now. Steve.Yeah. Hi Martin. It's just past 5:00p.m. here in Soul. And as you mentioned,there's just a few hours left beforepolls close at 8:00 p.m. The electioncommission has stated that as of 4 p.m.,just an hour ago, there was a recordhigh voter turnout of 71%. So, we'llhave to see what that final number endsat. But it gives you a bit of anindication as to how engaged SouthKorea's electorate are when it comes tothis election. And there are severalreasons for that which I'll run youthrough because the last 6 months hasbeen incredibly uh volatile or it's beena very chaotic period in South Koreanpolitics. So you might remember thatback in December uh then presidentYunang Yol declared a martial law andthat really cascaded into a whole loadof uh political problems for thecountry. Mr. Yun made the declaration ina late night address that shocked thenation. He cited threats from what hecalled anti-state forces and NorthKorea. And in just a few hours, and amiddramatic scenes, the decree was voteddown by 190 lawmakers, many of whom felthis decision was motivated by his ownpolitical troubles. Now, Mr. Yun wasimpeached in just over a week. He hadbeen due to hold office until 2027. Hisimpeachment, though, was then upheld bySouth Korea's constitutional court. Andin the six turbulent months thatfollowed that martial law declaration,the country has had three actingpresidents. The most recent being Li JuHo, a former education minister whoassumed the role a month ago. So, as youcan imagine, 6 months of all thispolitical turmoil puts a lot of interestand a lot of emphasis on who is going tobe the winner of this election todaythat will be uh facing a lot ofchallenges both at home and abroadregardless of who takes office. Now thechaos prompted by that declaration ofmartial law has fested with distrust inthe political establishment andpolarization across the countryspreading and that turmoil is also beingfelt in the economy which contracted inthe first 3 months of the year and thatwas before the full impact from DonaldTrump's trade tariffs was felt. SouthKorea's new president will have tofigure out how to negotiate with anunpredictable US president who has alsohinted that he will demand a biggerfinancial contribution from Soul tosupport America's long-standing militarypresence in South Korea. And thenthere's South Korea's neighbor to theNorth. North Korea continues to expandits military and nuclear capabilitiesand has grown closer to Russia in recentyears. Now with all those factors inmind, South Koreans have a tough choiceahead of them as to who they want tolead their country. Now let's take alook at some of the contenders and thenthat are vying for the top job. Le EJMung, he is the candidate from theLiberal opposition party. He's seen asthe frontr runner for the job. He'spledged to bring to justice anyoneinvolved in the declaration of martiallaw. He also says he'll take a softerapproach to North Korea, increasegovernment spending, and hold and toldsupporters that he's in no rush tostrike a deal with President Trump. Nextis Kim Moonsu. He's from the rulingPeople Power Party and was a Laborminister under the former President Yun,who is removed from office. He'spromised to boost the economy, take atough stance towards North Korea, andimmediately negotiate a trade deal withthe United States. And there's Ejunuk.He used to lead the ruling party, butnow runs as a candidate for theConservative breakaway faction calledthe Reform Party. His stance against agreater gender equality has shown someappeal with some younger male voters.Now, let's dive a little bit more intosome of these sort of internationalaspects uh that are affecting SouthKorea and speak with former specialforces commander, retired LieutenantGeneral Chan Inbum. General Chan, I wantto get your thoughts first on thecurrent state of play that South Koreafinds itself in when it comes to itssecurity relationships with the UnitedStates and also with the fact that, youknow, it's still facing or in acontentious relationship with itsnorthern neighbor.Yes. Uh Steve, I think you gave a prettygood summary of the uh candidates andthe overall situation to which we are inthis uh position. uh security-wise, Ithink the focus now is rather not onsecurity, but on the economic uhsituation that the common people are in.As you know, uh consumers are reallystruggling right now. Small businessesare really struggling. So, that's themain focus of the Korean people. Uh buton the question ofsecurity, although the Liberal Partywants a better relationship with theNorth Koreans, I think the real questionis will North Korea answer those kindsof um new approaches? And same goes forthe conservatives. The conservatives sofar for the past two and a half yearshave been very tough on the NorthKoreans. Uh but basically North Koreahas decided that they will wallthemselves in and uh truly become ahermit country. So we'll have to seewhat happens in that area. But what'svery important is that our alliance withthe United States and the support of theinternational community which of courseincludes the United Kingdom is a basisfor stability in Northeast Asia and uhthe security challenge must be addressedfrom those pers perspectives as well.Yeah. And elaborate if you could thenthe relationship that South Korea hashad in the past with the United Stateswhen it comes to its securityarrangements. I was saying earlier thatPresident Trump, we know that he's atransactional president and we've seenhow he's been dealing with NATO, itsallies in sort of the WesternHemisphere. Are there concerns in SouthKorea that that the transactional natureof President Trump could be a could be adisadvantage for whoever comes intooffice?I think uh most Koreans think that Mr.Trump's approach istransactional. But if you look veryclosely, what the United States isasking not only Korea but of its all ofits allies is that its allies do theirpart. And quite frankly, I think youknow that uh it's not an absurd demand.So South Korea has enjoyed ourrelationship with the United States. Ithas brought us prosperity as well asdemocratic and political freedoms towhere

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