South Korea: Ruling on DP presidential candidate's election law violation case on Thursday

Seoul, April 29 (IANS) The South Korea's Supreme Court said on Tuesday that it will rule on the election law violation case of the Democratic Party (DP) presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung later this week.

The ruling will be made at 3 p.m. Thursday, the court said, just four days after Lee won the DP's primary for the June 3 presidential election.

The announcement comes after prosecutors appealed a high court ruling last month that acquitted Lee of lying as a presidential candidate during the 2022 election and overturned a lower court's sentence of a suspended prison term.

The case has posed a major legal hurdle for Lee, who is considered the front-runner in the upcoming presidential election.

The human rights lawyer-turned-politician Lee won 89.77 per cent of all votes cast in the party's primary, securing a majority of the votes needed to avoid a runoff. Lee has put economic recovery as his top priority and voiced openness for talks with North Korea.

This marks the highest figure ever recorded in a presidential primary among DP-affiliated candidates since South Korea's democratisation in 1987.

Gyeonggi Province Gov. Kim Dong-yeon came in second with 6.87 per cent, while Kim Kyung-soo, a former South Gyeongsang Province governor, won 3.36 per cent.

"I will humbly fulfil the responsibility of achieving national unity, which is both the mission of politics and the president's top priority," Lee said in his acceptance speech.

In 2022, Lee lost to former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol by just 0.73 percentage points. The presidential election is scheduled for June 3.

Additionally, the minor opposition Rebuilding Korea Party (RKP) also officially declared its support for Lee Jae-myung.

"We declare that Lee is not only the DP's candidate but also the candidate supported by our party. We will dedicate all our efforts to ensure Lee's overwhelming victory," the RKP's acting leader, Kim Sun-min, said in a release.

Lee is the front-runner for the presidential election to be held on June 3 after former President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached for his shocking declaration of martial law.

--IANS

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