South Korean presidential election results in a close contest between conservatives and progressives: Can President Lee fix a divided society and divided politics?

The results of the South Korean presidential election held on the 3rd of this month confirmed once again that conservatives and progressives were neck and neck. The winner was Lee Jae-myung of the progressive Democratic Party of Korea.
won 17,287,513 votes, the highest number of votes ever recorded in a presidential election, or 49.42% of the votes. While Lee won the presidential election by a landslide, Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party and
If the vote share of Lee Jun-seok of the conservative New Reform Party was also added, the total came to nearly 50%. The Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported that "in effect, conservatives and progressives are in a 50-50 split."
"These are the kinds of things that have happened in the past, and this has been confirmed by the recent presidential election," he explained. Meanwhile, in a message to the nation after taking the oath of office at the National Assembly on the 4th, Lee Jae-myung said, "I want to see what kind of leadership I can achieve in this presidential election."
"I will be the 'president of all,' who will unite and serve all the people, regardless of whether they supported a particular candidate or not," he said.
The election was held following the impeachment of former President Yoon Seok-yeol. During the election campaign, Lee Jae-myung characterized the People Power Party, which supported former President Yoon who declared "emergency martial law," as a "force of insurrection."
"This election will be a trial for the rebellious forces who have tried to destroy the constitutional order," he said. "We will create a country where military coups that point guns at the people will not be repeated."
With Lee Jae-myung, who has consistently maintained the top approval rating, in mind, he called for "our last chance to prevent the dictatorship of a monster president and to protect liberal democracy, the rule of law, the market economy, and the ROK-US alliance," and called for votes for himself.
Lee Jun-seok, who called himself a "moderate conservative," was asked by Kim's side to unify the candidates into one conservative candidate, but he refused. He fought the election to the end as one of the three main candidates.
As a result of the vote, Lee Jae-myung was elected and inaugurated as the 21st president on the 4th. Lee Jae-myung won by a landslide, receiving the most votes in the history of a South Korean presidential election.
However, they did not receive a majority of the votes. In the final vote count, Lee Jae-myung received 49.42% of the votes, Kim 41.15%, and Lee Jun-seok 8.34%. The vote percentages for Lee Jae-myung and the runner-up Kim were:
The difference was 8.27 points (2,891,874 votes), but the combined vote share of Kim and Lee Jun-seok, both conservatives, was 49.49%, 0.07 points higher than Lee Jae-myung's.
The result was a reaffirmation that the conservative and progressive camps were on an even playing field. Since former President Yoon declared "emergency martial law," Korean society has become increasingly divided. The Chosun Ilbo reported, "In the political world, there is no national unity.
"It is expected that running the country will not be easy," the newspaper said. Kim Jong-in, former chairman of the emergency response committee of the People Power Party, said in a public broadcaster KBS radio program,
"President Lee Jae Myung needs to make a calm decision. In the end, the majority of people do not support President Lee Jae Myung. From now on, the most important thing will be how to accept such people.
In a message to the nation on the 4th, President Lee Jae Myung vowed to unite the people, saying, "We will overcome small differences, recognize and respect each other, and build a country where the people are the masters, where the people are happy, and where true Koreans can live."
Lee Jae-myung also said that he is trying to shift the politics of confrontation that intensified after the impeachment and removal of former President Yoon to "politics of cooperation."
On the same day, he held a luncheon with leaders of the ruling and opposition parties and called for the unity of political power. At the luncheon, Lee said, "Politics must play its original role of resolving the people's difficulties and uniting the people."
"I sincerely hope that we can make concessions where necessary, compromise where necessary, and come up with policies that everyone can agree on, so that the people can live better lives.
"I hope that the politics will be one in which we can communicate with each other, acknowledge each other, and actually compete with each other," Lee Jae-myung said.
South Korean media outlet E-Daily commented that this was "interpreted as an attempt to start the process of collaborative governance."