Leaders | From prosecutor to president

South Korea’s new leader must restore his citizens’ faith in politics

After Yoon Suk-yeol’s narrow victory, time to stop the mudslinging

AT LAST, IT is over. A bitter presidential election campaign between two unpopular candidates, marred by scandal and notable chiefly for mudslinging, culminated on March 9th, when South Koreans turned out in droves to keep from office one of two roundly despised men: Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative People Power Party, and Lee Jae-myung, a populist from the ruling left-of-centre Minjoo party. In the end it was Mr Yoon who prevailed—by a wafer-thin margin. He will take charge of the world’s tenth-largest economy in May.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “From prosecutor to president”

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