South Korea chooses new president with inequality key concern

SEOUL: South Koreans will vote for a new president Wednesday with economic inequality a top concern despite growing sabre-rattling from the nuclear-armed North.

Record early voting indicates turnout will be high after a campaign dominated by mud-slinging between liberal Lee Jae-myung and conservative Yoon Suk-yeol.

The pair have been neck-and-neck in the polls for months, with around 90 percent of the electorate supporting one or the other.

Analysts say South Korean politics is particularly adversarial, with democracy only restored in 1987 after decades of authoritarian rule.

Presidents serve just a single term of five years, and every living former leader has been jailed for corruption after leaving office.

Yoon has already threatened to investigate outgoing President Moon Jae-in, citing unspecified “irregularities”.

Polling stations open at 6 am (2100 GMT) and shut at 6 pm. For 90 minutes after closing, Covid-positive voters will be allowed to cast their ballots.

South Korea is in the grip of an Omicron wave with more than 200,000 new cases being recorded on most days this month.

More than a million people are currently isolating at home after testing positive, health authorities say. The country amended its electoral laws last month to ensure they would be able to vote.

In a two-day early voting exercise last week, a record-breaking 37 percent of the 44 million people eligible cast their ballots — the highest number since the system was introduced in 2013.

Polls show the top concerns among the electorate are skyrocketing house prices in the capital Seoul, rising domestic inequality and stubborn youth unemployment.

The new president will also have to confront an increasingly assertive North Korea, which has embarked on a record-breaking blitz of weapons tests this year including a launch just days before the election.