Young South Korean women help propel liberal candidate Lee to victory

SEOUL - Young women in South Korea voted in droves to help new liberal President Lee Jae-myung win the June 3 election, reflecting the entrenched gender divide over politics in the country, where more young men backed conservative candidates.

Around 58 per cent of women voters in their 20s and 57 per cent in their 30s voted for Mr Lee of the Democratic Party, a joint exit poll by three broadcasters showed, mirroring the 2022 presidential election, while a majority of their male peers picked Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party and Lee Jun-seok, another conservative candidate.

Young women led the charge against former president Yoon Suk Yeol, who was ousted in April by the Supreme Court after being impeached over his short-lived imposition of martial law, triggering the snap election.

They outnumbered their male peers in massive anti-Yoon protests as they waved K-pop light sticks while braving near sub-zero temperatures in the winter.

“I voted for Lee Jae-myung in part because I was a little nervous about candidate Kim Moon-soo climbing in polls towards the end of the election,” said Ms Moon Song-hee, a 32-year-old female voter in Seoul.

Mr Kim and his party had failed to distance themselves from Yoon, driving away people like Ms Moon who were protesting outside Parliament soon after the Dec 3 martial law declaration, she said.

The women-led “revolution” is a starting point for making progress on gender equality that was reversed under Yoon, the Korea Women’s Association United said in a statement.

“This is not a simple regime change, but a historical achievement made by the fierce struggle of the people to restore the gender-equal democracy destroyed