"We are at a historic inflection point of whether we go on as a democratic republic or become a country of dictators," South Korea바카라s leading presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung declared.
Lee바카라s second presidential campaign is enmeshed in heightened security measures - addresses delivered from behind bulletproof glass, bodyguards forming a protective ring, snipers stationed on rooftops and bomb-sniffing dogs sweeping the area.
His political career involves being the Governor of Gyeonggi Province in 2018, a post he maintained till 2021, after which he quit to focus on the 2022 presidential election. Before that, he was the Mayor of Seongnam for eight years starting in 2010.
Over these tenures, he garnered the reputation of being a liberal leader who shut down dog meat shops for the cause of animal welfare. "Seongnam City will take the initiative to transform South Korea's image since 'the greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated'," he said in 2016, quoting M.K. Gandhi. He even survived a knife attack to the neck during a visit to the southern port city of Busan last year.
Nearly six months after conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol imposed martial law in the country on December 3 - triggering his impeachment 10 days later - South Korea heads to the polls for a historic snap election.
Yoon바카라s martial law lasted less than a day - an unprecedented and unexpected initiative that plunged the country into overnight panic. But the political recoils and civil backlash that surfaced then are simmering still.
Three years ago, Lee lost to Yoon by less than 1% - the narrowest margin South Korea has ever seen. However, he emerged as the frontrunner for the June 3 snap elections. The Democratic Party contender won nearly 90% of the votes to be selected as the party바카라s representative last month.
Lee has long been identified as an idealistic politician. Growing up in Seongnam - a satellite city of Seoul - his metamorphosis into the populist leader that he is today is tangled with growing up in abject poverty.
As a child, he had to quit formal education in order to work at factories to make ends meet; often under false identities to evade legal working age permits. After taking high school cases on the side, he graduated as a lawyer and represented union and workers' rights and social justice cases.
Still, Lee is no stranger to scandal. He is still under trial for alleged bribery and corruption charges for development projects during his tenure as mayor of Seongnam. Lee has called the allegations 바카라fiction바카라 and a 바카라political conspiracy바카라.
He was even fined 3 million won in March for defying a court order to testify in the trial. The hearing has been deferred till after the snap elections.
Additionally, the opposition leader was indicted last year for transferring illegal funds to Ssangbangwool Group to send $8 million to North Korea between 2019 and 2020 to arrange a visit to Pyongyang.
It is against this backdrop that Lee live-streamed himself jumping the walls of the country's parliament to vote against Yoon바카라s martial law and a military takeover, positioning himself as the flag bearer of the movement that led to Yoon바카라s impeachment just days later.
Even so, during his second presidential campaign, Lee recalibrated his image - shedding his fiery progressive roots in favour of a centrist platform. An activist during his student years and a politician who quoted Bernie Sanders, he has quickly transformed his long-standing belief system in favour of business-friendly voters.
He has shifted his hardline liberal belief system into moderation, going as far as calling himself "conservative" to appease the moderate voters. He emphasised "corporate growth"and suggested that longer working hours may be crucial for the growth of some sectors.
The country is at a poignant political crossroads - with Lee바카라s rightwinger opponent Kim Moon-soo from People Power Party and Yoon's former labour minister - portraying him as a "dangerous man" and a "harbinger of monster politics and dictatorship."
Kim - who is dealing with the baggage of the disgraced president Yoon바카라s attempts of military takeover - took his sweet time before distancing himself from his predecessor바카라s actions. Even though he has closed in on the poll numbers in the final leg of the campaign after eventually publicly criticizing Yoon바카라s martial law, he still has an uphill battle ahead of him as the voters are now reluctant to trust a party that severely compromised the democracy that is the pride of the country.
Amid the political infighting also looms threats of simultaneous tariff negotiations thrusted upon South Korea after Donald Trump바카라s presidency began. On the diplomatic front, Lee has shifted Democratic party바카라s stance on China by saying, "We should not neglect ties with China or Russia," adding that there is no need to have an unnecessarily hostile approach like now.
Asia바카라s fourth-largest economy - which is at its third interim leader in less than six months - is now hoping for a stable government and with Lee so close to victory that can almost be tasted, the nation holds its breath on the edge of a political turning point.
