Early exit polls are projecting Liberal Democratic Party of Korea candidate Moon Jae-in as the winner of the South Korean presidential election.

The post election survey conducted by Korean broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS say Moon won with over 41 percent of the vote. The exit poll is also in line with opinion polls taken before the election that gave Moon a 20 percentage point lead over the field of 13 candidates.

 

 Voter turnout was historically high following a tumultuous political period in which revelations of ex-President Park Geun-hye's alleged a multi-million dollar influence peddling scheme led to weeks of massive public protests that pressured the National Assembly to force her removal from office and call for a new election.

 

 The National Election Commission announced that voter turnout of the 42 million Koreans registered to vote was on track to reach over 80 percent, which would be the highest since President Kim Dae-jung was elected in 1997, with 80.7 percent of eligible voters casting ballots.



 Moon’s closest competitors in the exit polls were conservative Liberty Korea Party candidate Hong Joon-pyo winning 23 percent and centrist People’s Party candidate Ahn Cheol-soo gaining 21 percent.

 

 Official results are expected to be announced early Wednesday morning in Seoul, but the wide margin of Moon’s victory in the exit polls is unlikely to be so far off the official count to change the outcome.

Protest vote

 

 Strong public anger directed at Park over the corruption scandal seemed to energize the liberal base while depressing support for conservative candidates.

 

 Hwang Eui-soon, who attended the past rallies demanding Park’s ouster, said Moon’s support for their cause and calls for anti-corruption reforms influenced him to vote for the Democratic Party candidate.

 

 “I didn't know at that time, but how Mr. Moon played a role as a leader during the protests was very impressive,” said Hwang after voting at the Hongeun-dong polling station in the North of Seoul.

 

 Moon’s victory with just 40 percent of the vote also reflects deep ideological divisions in South Korea. In the South Korean election system the candidate who gains the most votes is declared the winner, even if that total is less than a majority of the electorate.

 

 His Democratic Party holds 119 seats in the 299 member National Assembly. The South Korean parliament usually has 300 members but Ahn Cheol-soo dropped out to run for president and has not yet been replaced. The two main conservative parties hold 126 seats. While Moon does not have a super majority in the legislature, he should be able to implement his polices with support from other liberal leaning parties.

 

 National security

 

 Many of Moon’s supporters said they like his domestic policy agenda to increase government spending for jobs and education. But some are ambivalent about his pro-engagement polices on North Korea that his conservative opponents have labeled as weak on national security.

 

 “[Some people] said [candidate Moon] is pro-North, but I think we don't need to worry about it,” said Kim Eun-hee after she voted for Moon in Seoul.

 

 Despite the impeachment scandal many older voters like Lee Bong-ho still supported the conservative parties due to their strong national security positions that emphasize sanctions, military deterrence and support for the U.S. alliance to restrain the North Korean nuclear threat.

 

 “I've been supporting conservatives, because I consider stability [as a priority]. Looking back at previous administrations, conservatives secured stability,” said Lee.

 

 Sunshine 2.0

 

 Moon advocates a two-track policy on North Korea that promotes dialogue while maintaining pressure and sanctions to encourage change. But many liken his approach to the Sunshine Policy Of Engagement initiated in the early 2000s by late South Korean President Kim Dae-jung. That attempt to build inter-Korean trust through assistance and cooperative projects eventually ended in the face of the North’s refusal to suspend its nuclear programs and its continued military provocations.

 

 Moon ran against the conservative Park in 2012 presidential election but narrowly lost in part because she was seen as stronger on national security.

 

 During this presidential campaign Moon criticized the conservative punitive approach toward North Korea for not only failing to stop Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons development, but for also allowing it to accelerate under their watch with increased ballistic missile and nuclear tests.

 

 Moon said on Tuesday that the next South Korean president should take on a more active diplomatic role in working with both the United States and China to bring North Korea to international talks to resolve the nuclear standoff.



 

 The new president will have to deal with erupting diplomatic crises with U.S. President Donald Trump’s $1 billion dollar demand for the THAAD missile defense system being deployed on the Korean Peninsula, and with China’s economic retaliation against South Korea, limiting tourism and imports, for supporting THAAD that Beijing sees as a threatening increase of the U.S. military presence in the region. </s> Supporters of South Korea's presidential candidate Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party hold up his election poster in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, May 9, 2017. Exit polls forecast that liberal candidate Moon will win the election Tuesday to succeed ousted President Park Geun-hye. Official results weren't expected for hours, but the exit poll of about 89,000 voters at 330 polling stations, jointly commissioned by three major television stations and released just after polls closed, showed Moon receiving 41.4 percent of the vote. The sign read "Moon Jae-in".(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) </s> After nine years of conservative rule, a progressive will now occupy the Blue House. Moon Jae-in, the Democratic Party candidate, handily won Tuesday’s presidential election in South Korea. His victory will likely result in serious and significant swings in South Korean policy in ways that affect Japan and other nations in the region. There is no time to lose in preparing for those shifts and to build relations with the new government to minimize their impact on Japan.

Moon is a former human rights lawyer and progressive politician who served as chief of staff to the last liberal president, Roh Moo-hyun. He was one of Roh’s closest friends; he was in charge of Roh’s funeral after he committed suicide and helped settle his affairs. That experience no doubt will have an impact on his presidency and his management of Korean affairs.

Moon won a convincing victory in Tuesday’s ballot. He claimed 41 percent of the vote, cleanly besting conservative candidate Hong Joon-pyo with 24 percent of the vote, and the centrist software magnate Ahn Cheol-soo, who claimed 21.4 percent of ballots. With turnout at 77 percent, the highest level in two decades, Moon can claim a genuine mandate.

Moon rides a tide of popular disgust with conservative politics. He was narrowly defeated by Park Geun-hye in the 2012 presidential election, an outcome that deepened the bitter divisions that characterize South Korea’s political world. But Park’s impeachment last year, and its unanimous confirmation by the Constitutional Court in March, created a surge of support for Moon, who has long enjoyed an image as a clean politician. Opinion polls taken just before the election showed that the top concern for the country’s voters was “deep-rooted corruption” and a desire to promote reform; second on that list was economic revival.

If Moon is to succeed in those tasks, he must tackle the chaebol, the huge industrial conglomerates that dominate the South Korean economy and have outsized influence in its politics. The left in South Korea has long sought to reduce their power and size, but have invariably failed. The Park scandal also ensnared some of the country’s largest chaebol and Moon will try to use those entanglements to press long-sought reform.

South Korea’s economic rejuvenation is of importance to Japan, but of more immediate significance, and concern, are potential swings in Seoul’s foreign policy in the wake of Moon’s win. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in commenting that he “looks forward to working with” the new president, said the two countries are “the most important neighbors that share strategic interests.” A good bilateral relationship is essential for peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. It is worrisome then that Moon has said that he wants to renegotiate the “comfort women” agreement that Tokyo and Seoul reached in December 2015 and helped the two countries move beyond that contentious issue. To his credit, Moon said earlier this month that he will not use that issue as the “starting point” for relations with Japan, but the temptation to play that card will be strong. Japan should not give South Korea a reasons to do so.

Tensions will also arise from Moon’s desire to reclaim South Korea’s leading role in relations with North Korea. Moon backs the Sunshine Policy of his progressive predecessors, Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, which sought to engage Pyongyang as a way of reducing tensions. That policy put less emphasis on the North’s denuclearization and instead offered significant financial resources to Pyongyang to convince it of Seoul’s good intentions. But the policy was undercut by the North’s cheating on commitments under the 1994 Framework Agreement that capped its nuclear ambitions and reneging on promises made during the six-party talks also involving Japan, the United States, China and Russia.

Pyongyang would have nothing to do with conservative presidents in Seoul who flatly acknowledged — and decried — the North Korean threat, hoping to mobilize the left in South Korea to take up its cause. Moon has said that he favors a “bold blueprint” to deal with North Korea. He would resume economic ties to encourage reform in the North, and would likely push for the reopening of the Kaesong Industrial Complex. In return, he looks ready to accept a freeze on nuclear tests.

The North Korean leadership hopes Moon will break with Tokyo and Washington and join China in pushing for the U.S. and others to engage without preconditions. The prospect of a rupture between the U.S., Japan and South Korea is now real, and nothing would delight North Korea more.

Moon must thread the needle. He wants to lead in relations with Pyongyang, but he needs partners to get the North’s attention. China has connections to Pyongyang and economic influence, but Beijing’s price for help is that Seoul make more distance between itself and the U.S. Yet the U.S. provides the best guarantee of South Korean sovereignty in the face of both Chinese and North Korean threats. Japan has already indicated its readiness to reach out to the new president and help him make the right choice. </s> SEOUL, South Korea — Exit polls in South Korea forecast that liberal candidate Moon Jae-in will win an election Tuesday to succeed ousted President Park Geun-hye.

Official results weren’t expected for hours, but the exit poll of about 89,000 voters at 330 polling stations, jointly commissioned by three major television stations and released just after polls closed, showed Moon receiving 41.4 percent of the vote.

His two main rivals, conservative Hong Joon-pyo and centrist Ahn Cheol-soo, were expected to garner 23.3 percent and 21.8 percent, respectively, according to the exit poll, which had a margin of error of 0.8 percentage points.

Such polls are merely a snapshot of the stated intentions of certain voters.

The final opinion surveys released last week showed Moon, the Democratic Party candidate, had about a 20 percentage point lead over his two main challengers.

A win by Moon would end a decade of conservative rule in South Korea and could result in sharp departures from recent policy toward nuclear-armed North Korea.

Moon has called for engagement with North Korea, saying that the hard-line approach favored by conservative governments did nothing to prevent the North from expanding its nuclear bomb and missile programs and only reduced South Korea’s voice in international efforts to deal with its rival.

The winning candidate will be officially sworn in as South Korea’s new president after the election commission finishes the vote count and declares the winner Wednesday morning. This forgoes the usual two-month transition because Tuesday’s vote was a by-election to choose a successor to Park, whose term was to end in February 2018.

Following months of protests by millions and impeachment by lawmakers, Park was removed from office and arrested in March over corruption allegations. The new South Korean president will still serve out a full, single five-year term.

“I gave all my body and soul (to the election) to the very end,” Moon, 64, told reporters Tuesday after casting his ballot in Seoul.

Moon was chief of staff for the last liberal president, the late Roh Moo-hyun, who sought closer ties with North Korea by setting up large-scale aid shipments to the North and by working on now-stalled joint economic projects.

Hong, an outspoken former provincial governor who pitched himself as a “strongman,” described the election as a war between ideologies and questioned Moon’s patriotism.

After voting, Hong said the election was a “war of regime choices between people, whether they decide to accept a North Korea-sympathizing leftist government or a government that can protect the liberty of the Republic of Korea,” South Korea’s formal name.

Park’s trial later this month on bribery, extortion and other corruption charges could send her to jail for life if she is convicted. Dozens of high-profile figures, including Park’s longtime confidante, Choi Soon-sil, and Samsung’s de facto leader, Lee Jae-yong, have been indicted along with Park.

Moon frequently appeared at anti-Park rallies and the corruption scandal boosted his push to re-establish liberal rule. He called for reforms to reduce social inequalities, excessive presidential power and corrupt ties between politicians and business leaders. Many of those legacies dated to the dictatorship of Park’s father, Park Chung-hee, whose 18-year rule was marked by both rapid economic rise and severe civil rights abuse.

As a former pro-democracy student activist, Moon was jailed for months in the 1970s while protesting against the senior Park.

Many analysts say Moon, if elected, likely won’t pursue drastic rapprochement policies because North Korea’s nuclear program has progressed significantly since he was in the Roh government a decade ago.

A big challenge for whoever wins will be U.S. President Donald Trump, who has proven himself unconventional in his approach to North Korea, swinging between intense pressure and threats and offers to talk.

“South Koreans are more concerned that Trump, rather than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, will make a rash military move, because of his outrageous tweets, threats of force and unpredictability,” Duyeon Kim, a visiting fellow at the Korean Peninsula Future Forum in Seoul, wrote recently in Foreign Affairs magazine.

“It is crucial that Trump and the next South Korean president strike up instant, positive chemistry in their first meeting to help work through any bilateral differences and together deal with the North Korean challenge,” she said. </s> SEOUL (Reuters) - Liberal politician Moon Jae-in decisively won South Korea’s presidential election on Tuesday, television networks declared, an expected victory ending nearly a decade of conservative rule and bringing a more conciliatory approach toward North Korea.

Moon’s victory will end months of political turmoil that led to parliament’s impeachment of conservative former President Park Geun-hye over an extensive corruption scandal, which a court upheld in March. Park became the first democratically elected leader in South Korea to be removed from office, triggering a snap election to choose her successor.

Climbing a temporary stage set up in the main square in downtown Seoul, a beaming Moon surrounded by his Democratic Party leaders, vowed to usher in a new era for a country badly bruised by the scandal in a midnight victory speech.

“I will make a just, united country,” he told a crowd gathered to see the former human rights lawyer who entered politics just five years ago. “I will be a president who also serves all the people who did not support me.”

With 80 percent of the votes counted at 1705 GMT, Moon was ahead with 40 percent, according to the National Election Commission. A conservative challenger, former prosecutor Hong Joon-pyo, was next with 25.5 percent followed by centrist candidate Ahn Cheol-soo with 21.4 percent.

A plurality of votes is enough for victory.

The results were in line with an exit poll by South Korea’s three biggest broadcasters, which showed Moon, 64, capturing 41.4 percent of the votes in a field of 13 candidates.

“If exit polls are true, I will accept the results and just be satisfied with the fact that the Liberty Korea Party will be restored,” a downcast Hong told members of his conservative party.

Ahn said he would “humbly accept” the result.

Voter turnout was 77.2 percent, the highest in 20 years, but short of the expected 80 percent mark, as voters headed to the polls in drizzly weather.

The White House congratulated Moon on his election win, saying it looked forward to working with him to strengthen the longstanding U.S.-South Korea alliance.

A U.S. official said Moon’s election could add “volatility” to ties with Washington, given his questioning of deployment of a U.S. missile defense there and his advocacy of engagement with North Korea when the Trump administration seeks to step up pressure on Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs.

But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Moon may moderate his stance on installation of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system once he is in office and is not expected to significantly alter the alliance.

FRACTURED PARLIAMENT

Moon is expected to be sworn in for a five-year term later on Wednesday. He has said he would skip a lavish inauguration ceremony and start work straight away.

He is likely to quickly name a prime minister, who will need parliamentary approval. The main cabinet posts, including national security and finance ministers, do not need parliamentary confirmation.

Moon, who narrowly lost to Park in the last presidential election in 2012, favours dialogue with North Korea to ease tension over its accelerating nuclear and missile program. He also wants to reform powerful family-run conglomerates, such as Samsung and Hyundai, and boost fiscal spending to create jobs.

Moon has criticized the two previous conservative governments for failing to stop North Korea’s weapons development. He advocates a two-track policy of seeking dialogue with the North while maintaining pressure and sanctions to encourage change.

His Democratic Party holds 40 percent of the single-chamber, 299-seat assembly, which means he will have to build coalitions to pass legislation.

His victory was bolstered by strong support from younger people, according to the exit polls. Many of his supporters participated in big, peaceful weekend rallies over the last few months of 2016 and early this year, demanding Park step down.

South Chungcheong governor An Hee-jung kisses South Korea's president-elect Moon Jae-in at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul, South Korea May 9, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyunghoon

Only 22-25 percent of people in their 60s and 70s voted for Moon, exit polls showed, underscoring a long-standing generation gap. Many older people are wary of Moon’s less confrontational stance on North Korea.

SOUTH KOREA FIRST

The election is being closely watched abroad at a time of high tension with North Korea, which is believed to be preparing for a sixth nuclear test and has vowed to test an intercontinental missile.

Britain’s Sky News quoted North Korea’s ambassador to the Britain, Choe Il, as saying in an interview that Pyongyang would go ahead with a nuclear test “at the place and time as decided by our supreme leader, Kim Jong Un,” despite international warnings not to do so.

Moon, whose campaign promises include a “National Interest First” policy, has struck a chord with people who want the country to stand up to powerful allies and neighbors.

He wrote in a book published in January South Korea should learn to say “no to America”.

Moon said in a YouTube live stream on Tuesday that South Korea should take on a more active diplomatic role to curb North Korea’s nuclear threat and not watch idly as the United States and China talk to each other.

Moon was a close friend and confidant of late president Roh Moo-hyun, who served from 2003 to 2008 and advocated a “Sunshine Policy” of engaging North Korea through aid and exchanges.

Moon believes better inter-Korean relations is the best way to provide security. But Washington is worried his moderate stance could undercut efforts to increase pressure and sanctions, senior South Korean officials said.

“Things are not right to resume the so-called Sunshine Policy, as the U.S. and China turned more hostile toward North Korea,” said Koh Yu-hwan, Dongguk University professor of North Korean studies, who is serving as a foreign policy adviser to Moon.

“Still, Moon is expected to engage in discussions, which could improve North-South relations.”

Slideshow (23 Images)

Moon’s election could also complicate the deployment of the THAAD system, which the former government in Seoul and the U.S. military agreed to last year and which U.S. officials said last week had reached initial operating capability.

Moon has said the decision was made too quickly and the next administration should have the final say on whether to deploy the system.

For graphic on South Korea's presidential election, click tmsnrt.rs/2p0AyLf

For graphic on election demographics, click tmsnrt.rs/2pGD25v </s> (SEOUL) — Liberal Moon Jae-in has declared victory in South Korea's presidential election after his two major rivals conceded defeat Tuesday.

The election sets up the country's first liberal rule in a decade.

It follows months of political turmoil caused by ousted President Park Geun-hye's corruption scandal.

The concessions by conservative Hong Joon-pyo and centrist Ahn Cheol-soo came after exit polls forecast that Moon would win. </s> SEOUL (Reuters) - As hundreds of thousands of South Koreans poured into the streets every weekend for two months to call for President Park Geun-hye to resign, the opposition’s leading contender to replace her appeared reluctant to seize the moment.

Moon Jae-in (C), former human rights lawyer and presidential candidate of the main opposition Democratic United Party, attends a campaign encouraging people to vote, in Seoul, South Korea December 19, 2012. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo

That is changing as Moon Jae-in, a 63-year-old human rights lawyer who lost the 2012 election to Park by more than a million votes, has in recent days taken a higher public profile as he seeks to lead the liberal Democratic Party into the next election and end eight years of conservative rule.

Like many on the left, he calls for sweeping reform of the chaebol - the big conglomerates that dominate the economy and have been at the heart of the current political crisis - calling them a “source of unfairness” in South Korea.

He promises to move the presidential office into a multi-purpose government building and turn the palace-like Blue House, where Park remains while a court decides her fate after she was impeached by parliament, into a public museum.

He has also said that, if elected, he would visit rival North Korea before making a trip to South Korea’s main ally, the United States. Just two North-South summits have been held since the 1950-53 Korean war that divided the peninsula.

“The people who are angry in Korea want regime change, and the most realistic option and most probable person to do that is Moon Jae-in,” Yang Jung-chul, a close aide to Moon, told Reuters.

Moon had led opinion polls in recent weeks, although a survey released on Thursday by Realmeter showed he had fallen just behind United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, by 23.1 percent to 22.2 percent.

Ban has yet to declare his candidacy or party affiliation, but has been expected to join a conservative grouping.

Moon’s popularity among liberals stems from his time as chief of staff to South Korea’s last liberal president, Roh Moo-hyun, a figure revered by the left for his experimental and anti-establishment politics that sought chaebol reform.

“Moon is a symbol of that experiment,” said Yang.

But Roh, derided by conservatives for his pursuit of engagement with North Korea that they say failed to change Pyongyang’s behavior, could also be Moon’s undoing, especially among South Korea’s elderly.

The majority of people aged over 60, most of whom are conservative, have turned out to vote in the last three presidential elections, according to National Election Commission data. In 2012, 85.9 percent of over-60s voted.

By contrast, the least-avid voting group is people in their 20s or 30s, many of whom took to the streets for the first time during recent candle-lit protests in Seoul. At the last election their turnout levels were below 65 percent.

That was high, by recent standards, for the demographic, but Moon will need to convince an even bigger share of them to turn out and vote for him in the upcoming election, which is no sure thing.

“He has a tendency to make ambiguous comments and be overly-cautious of crossing lines,” said Moon Ji-hyun, a student activist at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul. “He wasn’t in the frontlines at the early stages of the protests.”

The Constitutional Court must decide whether to uphold parliament’s Dec. 9 motion to impeach Park, which could take up to 180 days and, if successful, trigger an election two months later.

SWEET POTATO

Moon’s parents fled North Korea during the Korean War and resettled in Busan, at the south of the peninsula, where Moon grew up in a shanty town.

He was jailed in 1975 for protesting against the dictatorship of Park Chung Hee, President Park’s father, whose rule lasted 18 years. After leaving mandatory military service, where he served in the special forces, Moon became a lawyer.

As leader of the opposition last year, Moon adopted a more centrist stance to win over skeptics. But just 8 percent of those polled at the time said they thought Moon’s party was best on economic issues, compared with 44 percent for the ruling Saenuri Party.

“To win undecided voters, Moon needs to address security, diplomacy and unification, where many are distrustful of him,” said Lee Chung-hee, a politics professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.

Moon came under fire earlier this year for revelations in a former foreign minister’s memoir that he had backed a motion to abstain from a United Nations vote against North Korea’s human rights record.

While Moon leads the race to represent his party in the election, new stars have risen.

One is Lee Jae-myung, the mayor of Seongnam, just south of Seoul, who has gone from rank outsider to third place in polls, riding the crisis with populist speeches.

By contrast, Moon’s caution and deliberate speaking style has earned him the nickname “sweet potato” - slow to cook, slow to eat, and a little difficult to swallow.

Lee, meanwhile, has been dubbed “soda” for his refreshing new take on politics.

In a recent radio interview, Moon said the Seongnam mayor was indeed like soda - refreshing but, unlike his own nickname, lacking substance. </s> Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 9:33 am |

SEOUL (Reuters) - Liberal politician Moon Jae-in won South Korea’s presidential election on Tuesday, exit polls showed, an expected victory that would end nearly a decade of conservative rule and bring a more conciliatory approach toward North Korea.

A decisive win by Moon, with more than 40 percent of votes in a field of 13 candidates, would end months of political turmoil stemming from a parliamentary vote in December to impeach former President Park Geun-hye over an extensive corruption scandal.

The Constitutional Court upheld her impeachment in March, making her the first democratically elected leader to be removed from office and triggering a snap election to choose her successor.

Wearing a dark blue suit and blue tie, Moon was seen shaking hands with supporters and party officials and smiling on his way to a meeting of his Democratic Party after the exit poll results were announced.

“We will need to calmly wait and see, as this was just exit polls,” he told party members. “But if things go on this way and we win, today’s victory is thanks to sheer desperation of the people who wanted a regime change.

“We will accomplish the two tasks given to us, reform and national unity that the people of this country desire.”

Moon, 64, was beating conservative challenger, former prosecutor Hong Joon-pyo, by 41.4 percent to 23.3 percent of the votes, exit polls conducted jointly by three network stations showed.

A Gallup Korea poll last week showed Moon had 38-percent support in a field of 13 candidates.

Moon is expected to be sworn in on Wednesday after the National Election Commission releases the official result. He has said he would skip a lavish inauguration ceremony and start work straight away.

He is likely to quickly name a prime minister, who will need parliamentary approval, and main Cabinet positions, including national security and finance ministers, which do not need parliamentary confirmation.

Moon, who narrowly lost to Park in the last presidential election, in 2012, favors dialogue with North Korea to ease rising tension over its accelerating nuclear and missile program. He also wants to reform powerful family-run conglomerates, such as Samsung and Hyundai, and boost fiscal spending to create jobs.

Moon has criticized the two former conservative governments for failing to stop North Korea’s weapons development. He advocates a two-track policy of dialogue while maintaining pressure and sanctions to encourage change.

Moon faces working with a fractured parliament where his Democratic Party holds 40 percent of the single-chamber, 299-seat assembly, which will likely mean difficulties and deals to pass bills.

“He has to pursue cooperation with other liberal and centrist parties, since the Democratic Party does not have the majority,” said Kim Man-heum, head of the Korea Academy of Politics and Leadership.

“Moon has been criticized for running his own ‘clique,’ so in order to get over that negative image, he’ll seek cooperation to avoid rifts and conflicts,” Kim said.

His victory was bolstered by strong support from younger people, the majority of whom voted for him, according to the exit polls. Many of his supporters participated in big, peaceful weekend rallies over the last few months of 2016 and early this year, demanding Park step down.

The election was closely watched by allies and neighbors at a time of high tension over North Korea’s accelerating development of weapons since it conducted its fourth nuclear test in January last year. It conducted a fifth test in September and is believed ready for another.

Moon said in a live stream on Tuesday that South Korea should take on a more active diplomatic role to curb North Korea’s nuclear threat and not watch idly as the United States and China talk to each other. </s> Left-leaning former human rights lawyer Moon Jae-In won South Korea's presidential election by a landslide, an exit poll predicted when voting closed Tuesday.

The election was called to choose a new president after Park Geun-Hye was ousted and indicted for corruption, and took place against a backdrop of high tensions with the nuclear-armed North.

Voters were galvanised by anger over the sprawling bribery and abuse-of-power scandal that brought down Park, which catalysed frustrations over jobs and slowing growth.

They gave Moon, of the Democratic Party, who backs engagement with the North, 41.4 percent support, according to the joint survey by three television stations. Conservative Hong Joon-Pyo -- who dubs Moon a "pro-Pyongyang leftist" was far behind on 23.3 percent, with centrist Ahn Cheol-Soo third on 21.8.

"I feel the people's strong will to change the government... we can make it a reality only when we vote," Moon said after casting his ballot with his wife in western Seoul.

National elections are public holidays in South Korea and a record turnout was expected, with 75.1 percent of voters casting their ballots by 7:00 pm, an hour before the polls closed, just below the final turnout of five years ago.

Kim Sun-Chul, 59, said he voted for Moon because "this country needs to restore democracy which has been so undermined by the Park government".

The campaign focused largely on the economy, with North Korea less prominent, but after a decade of conservative rule a Moon victory could mean a sea change in Seoul's approach towards both Pyongyang and key ally Washington.

The 64-year-old -- accused by his critics of being soft on the North -- has advocated dialogue to ease tensions and to bring it to negotiations. He is seen as favouring more independence in relations with the US, Seoul's security guarantor with 28,500 troops in the country.

Their presence, he told reporters during the campaign, was "important not only to our own security but also to the global strategy of the US".

The North has carried out two nuclear tests and a series of missile launches since the start of last year in its quest to develop a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the US mainland.

Washington has said military action is an option, sending fears of conflict spiralling.

More recently US President Donald Trump has softened his message, saying he would be "honoured" to meet the North's leader, Kim Jong-Un.

Moon also says he would be willing to visit Pyongyang to meet Kim and advocates resumption of some of the inter-Korean projects shuttered by his predecessors, including the Kaesong joint industrial zone.

In Seoul's prosperous Seocho district, 72-year-old doctor Chung Tae-Wan backed Moon's conservative opponent Hong, telling AFP he did so because "security is the most important thing".

But for many South Korean voters, corruption, slowing growth, unemployment and even air pollution from China top the list of concerns.

South Korea's rapid growth from the 1970s to 1990s pulled a war-ravaged nation out of poverty but slowed as the economy matured, and unemployment among under-30s is now at a record 10 percent.

Frustration over widening inequality in wealth and opportunities fuelled anger over Park's scandal, which exposed the cosy and corrupt ties between regulators and powerful family-oriented conglomerates, known as chaebols, that have endured for decades.

Park is awaiting trial over corruption for offering governmental favours to top businessmen -- including Samsung heir Lee Jae-Yong -- who allegedly bribed her secret confidante, Choi Soon-Sil.

Moon, Ahn and other candidates promised to reform the chaebols, which dominate the economy and have long been criticised for operating with little scrutiny.

Another issue is relations with top trading partner Beijing, which imposed a series of measures seen as economic retaliation over the deployment of a US anti-missile system, THAAD, in the South.

In an election day editorial, the JoongAng daily said South Korea had been left "adrift" by the "acute division and lack of national leadership" stemming from the corruption scandal and Park's impeachment.

The vote, it said, was a "great opportunity to put the troubled nation back on track".
South Koreans vote in a presidential election, with Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea winning the election.