PinnedUpdated June 3, 2025, 3:04 a.m. ETSouth Koreans began voting on Tuesday to elect a new president after months of political turmoil. Whoever wins will face daunting challenges, including trying to fix a sputtering domestic economy and navigating tensions between the country’s ally the United States and China.The race pits Lee Jae-myung, the candidate of the centrist Democratic Party, against Kim Moon-soo, who represents the conservative People Power Party. Pre-election surveys showed that Mr. Lee is more likely to win.Mr. Lee has pledged to heal his deeply polarized country and boost its economy. He has also championed more balanced diplomacy, promising to mend strained relations with China and North Korea while maintaining the alliance with the United States as the bedrock of national security.If Mr. Kim wins, he is likely to continue the conservative foreign policy of former President Yoon Suk Yeol, which focused on strengthening ties with Washington and Tokyo at the cost of antagonizing Pyongyang and Beijing.The voting started across South Korea at 6 a.m. and will end at 8 p.m. The results of a joint exit poll by the country’s three main broadcasters — KBS, MBC and SBS — will be released soon after the polls close. Enough of the votes will have been counted by early Wednesday for the nation to learn who has won, polling experts said.South Korea’s political turmoil began when Mr. Yoon, unpopular throughout his three years in office, tried to seize the opposition-controlled National Assembly by military force during his short-lived imposition of martial law in December. He was later impeached by the Assembly and in April was formally expelled from office by the Constitutional Court, opening the way for Tuesday’s election.As such, the election is being contested largely as a referendum on Mr. Yoon and the People Power Party, which had nominated and supported him as president.Here’s what else to know:Deep divisions: South Koreans are more divided than ever. All candidates have called for “national unity,” recognizing a deepening political polarization as one of the biggest challenges the country faces. But during the campaign, they indulged in stoking fear and indignation against each other.Young voters: When Mr. Yoon was impeached and removed from office, young protesters felt that their work had paid off. But some of them have been left feeling disenchanted by the candidates on the ballot. And many South Korean women say their priorities — making the country safer and fairer for them — are taking a back seat, and not for the first time.June 3, 2025, 3:34 a.m. ETStock market performance since 2024Analysts have recently upgraded their forecasts for South Korea’s stock market and currency, regardless of which candidate prevails in Tuesday’s election. Simply electing a new leader through a popular vote, they say, will bring greater political certainty after months of turbulence.Investors in South Korea have been wary as the country has been led by a series of unelected acting presidents after former President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached in December after briefly declaring martial law. The country’s main stock market index closed last year as one of the worst performers in Asia.President Trump’s tariffs on cars, steel and other goods have since hit the country’s export industry hard, darkening the economic outlook. South Korea’s central bank, which has been cutting interest rates to shore up the economy, recently slashed its forecast for growth this year, to below 1 percent.“We believe the worst will have passed with the election and the removal of political uncertainty domestically,” Kathleen Oh, an economist at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a research note. The two main candidates both plan to spend more to shore up the economy. Jin Choi of HSBC estimates that such a stimulus could add a small but much-needed boost to the country’s growth rate, supporting stocks and the currency.Since 1990, “market performance is positive during the first year of a new administration on average,” analysts at Goldman Sachs noted. They raised their forecast for the benchmark Kospi index, implying a 9 percent rise over the coming year, driven by the removal of a “political overhang.” They also said that the South Korean won was likely to strengthen, regardless of the election outcome, because of “declines in policy uncertainties.”South Korea’s stock market has bounced back from its fall after Mr. Yoon imposed martial law. Still, the Kospi index is only back to where it traded at the beginning of last year, while indexes in China and Japan have posted double-digit percentage gains over the same period. Relative to other markets, Korean stocks continue to trade at a significant discount to their underlying earnings, which analysts attribute to poor corporate governance and a lack of shareholder rights.Both leading candidates have pledged to make changes to address the issues behind the “Korea discount,” the Goldman analysts added, but whoever takes over faces this and many other challenges at home and abroad, from uniting a deeply divided electorate to navigating a global trade war.June 3, 2025, 2:47 a.m. ETSouth Korea’s former president, Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office, cast his ballot with his wife, Kim Keon Hee. The election is being billed largely as a referendum on Yoon and his former party.VideoCreditCredit...Korea Pool via ReutersJune 3, 2025, 2:50 a.m. ETJin Yu YoungReporting from SeoulYoon left the conservative People Power Party last month, after its leaders called for his exit to increase the chances their candidate, Kim Moon-soo, would win. Some of the party’s lawmakers said ties to the former president would diminish public faith in the party.June 3, 2025, 2:45 a.m. ETJin Yu YoungReporting from SeoulLee Jae-myung, the centrist party’s candidate, on Tuesday afternoon implored people who hadn’t voted to do so. “The citizens are the owners of South Korean history,” he wrote on social media. “The people’s choice has always been correct.”June 3, 2025, 2:37 a.m. ETZuzanna PiekarskaSeveral unconventional polling stations were established across the country in a variety of unusual locations. These included a wrestling arena, a car dealership, a book cafe library, and a gym inside a community center.Soo-Hyeon Kim/ReutersJune 3, 2025, 2:01 a.m. ETThe top two candidates have had a hard time winning over voters ages 18-29, the demographic with the most undecided voters. Lee Jae-myung, the front-runner, is the least popular among men in that group. And Kim Moon-soo, Lee’s main rival, had a particularly weak support rating among women in that age group.June 3, 2025, 1:11 a.m. ETJin Yu Young and Jun Michael ParkReporting from Seoul“I hope the new president doesn’t make similar blunders.”Lim Yu-sin, 43, a small-business owner from Seoul, said Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law made him want to come out and vote.VideoCreditCredit...Jun Michael Park for The New York TimesJune 3, 2025, 1:10 a.m. ETProtesters demonstrating against President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea in Seoul in December.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesAfter President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea briefly imposed martial law in December, many young people in the country took to the streets for the first time. They spent months calling for his removal as they sang protest anthems and attended marches in the freezing cold holding K-pop light sticks and custom-made flags.When Mr. Yoon was later impeached and removed from office, young protesters felt that their work had paid off. But as Election Day approached, some of them felt disenchanted by the candidates on the ballot.“My one thought on this election is disgust,” said An Ye-young, 20, who is preparing for the college entrance exam. She joined the demonstrations again Mr. Yoon in December, her first time as a protester.“It’s a feast with nothing to eat,” she said, speaking over the weekend after casting her ballot early.For many young South Koreans, the candidates running on Tuesday are not addressing some of their key issues: youth unemployment, pension reform, and discrimination and abuse against women.Young people in South Korea face a tough job market. The unemployment rate among people 15 to 29 rose to a four-year high of 6.8 percent in the first quarter of this year.South Korea’s low birthrate has also fueled concerns that its $800 billion-plus national pension fund could be depleted if a growing number of people depend on it while contributions dwindle.And the country has some of highest rates of gender-based discrimination in the developed world, along with rampant online sexual abuse that domestic legislation has done little to stop. Many South Korean women want the country made safer and fairer for them, but they say their concerns take a back seat in elections, including this one.That doesn’t mean young South Koreans are staying home on Tuesday, though. Several young protesters said in recent interviews that they planned to vote against Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party in an effort to stop it from regaining power.Goh Hee-sung, 24, said he refused to vote for Mr. Lee out of fear that electing him would give too much power to his party.Lee Suyoon, 21, who voted for Lee Jae-myung when he first ran for president in 2022, said she felt torn.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesFor months after Mr. Yoon’s failed martial law declaration, some in the party defended him by trying to block his impeachment, prevent his arrest and urge the Constitutional Court to reject a motion to end his term. Young people haven’t forgotten.Kim Yoon-ji, 24, said she wished the presidential candidates had promoted policies to protect women. She cited government data showing that most victims of violent crimes in South Korea are female.Lee Jae-myung, the centrist front-runner, has often hesitated to directly address women’s issues. Policies that seek to help women are unpopular among many young South Korean men who view such legislation as discriminatory against them.But Ms. Kim, who attended her first political protest last year, said she saw a vote for Mr. Lee as a vote against the People Power Party.“The party that caused the martial law situation can’t regain power again,” she said.Goh Hee-sung, another new protester, said he had refused to vote for Mr. Lee out of fear that electing him would give too much power to his Democratic Party, which already controls the country’s legislature.But even though Mr. Goh, 24, voted for Mr. Yoon in the 2022 presidential election, he said that he couldn’t bring himself to support the party’s candidate in this election, Kim Moon-soo. He said he didn’t want to support the party that had defended Mr. Yoon after his martial law declaration.So Mr. Goh voted for a third-party candidate, Lee Jun-seok of the conservative Reform Party. He said he hoped Mr. Lee, the youngest on the ballot at 40, would bring the changes he felt were necessary.“The root of the problem is the deeply entrenched two-party politics,” Mr. Goh added.Lee Suyoon, 21, who voted for Lee Jae-myung in 2022 and joined anti-Yoon demonstrations in December, said she felt similarly torn.“After seeing the candidates’ campaign promises and the presidential debate, there is no candidate who perfectly satisfies what I want in a president,” she said.She was leaning toward voting for Lee Jun-seok, she said, but still undecided.June 3, 2025, 1:05 a.m. ETJin Yu YoungReporting from SeoulSouth Korea has historically seen high voter turnout since it first held democratic elections in 1987, after decades of military rule. In that election, the turnout was 89 percent. Even at its lowest — 63 percent in 2007 — voter turnout was higher than typically seen in many democracies including the United States.South Korea’s electoral participation tops many Western democraciesSources: International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance; The American Presidency Project, U.C. Santa Barbara; Elections CanadaNotes: Voting-age population (VAP) turnout of the most recent presidential elections are shown. For countries that do not hold presidential elections, the turnout of the latest parliamentary election is shown. The figure for Canada represents the registered voter turnout in the 2025 federal election. Countries that enforce compulsory voting practices are excluded.By Weiyi CaiJune 3, 2025, 12:43 a.m. ETMost South Korean elections are decided by voters in the metropolitan area of Seoul, where about 51 percent of the nation’s 44 million eligible voters live. The two other major regions, generally support the same party in each election. In the southwest, they tend to almost always favor the Democratic Party. Those in the southeast of the country favor candidates from the People Power Party.June 2, 2025, 2:29 a.m. ETLee Jae-myung, the leader of South Korea’s Democratic Party, wore a bulletproof vest as he kicked off his presidential campaign last month.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesIn a country that mostly outlaws guns, the front-runner for president has been campaigning for Tuesday’s vote clad in a bulletproof vest and giving speeches behind bulletproof glass.Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the South Korean Democratic Party, has openly stepped up security to levels rarely seen in a South Korean election.Early in the campaign season last month, Mr. Lee took off his suit to unveil a white bulletproof vest before slipping on his party’s blue jacket in front of his supporters. During one speech, he was yelled at by supporters imploring him to stay behind protective glass after he briefly stepped outside of its cover. His team has restricted access for journalists and has only allowed a select few to tag along as he toured the nation.Mr. Lee has reason to be concerned: He survived an attempted assassination last January when a man stabbed him in the neck after approaching him to ask for his autograph, in a worrying sign of how politically polarized the country had become. Last week, the National Police Agency said it had received nearly a dozen reports of online threats to kill Mr. Lee. One has been forwarded to prosecutors, an agency spokesman said.“Threat levels for this election have been higher than those in the past,” said Professor Yoon Taeyoung, who specializes in terrorism, crisis management and national intelligence at Kyungnam University.Political violence is rare in South Korea, but there have been high-profile episodes of it. In 2006, former president Park Geun-hye —- who was then a lawmaker — suffered a four-inch cut to her face after a man attacked her with a knife. Her father, the strongman Park Chung-hee, was fatally shot by the chief of the Korea Central Intelligence Agency at a dinner in 1979. More recently, Song Young-gil, the chief of the Democratic Party at the time, survived an attack to the head with a hammer in 2022.South Korea has tight laws surrounding firearms: people can only own a gun if it’s required for work such as in the police, military, or security industry, or authorized for hunting.Kim Moon-soo, the candidate for the People’s Power Party and Mr. Lee’s main rival, has taken a more relaxed approach to security during the campaign.“I have no need to wear a bulletproof vest,” he said to supporters in Seoul in May, unzipping his jacket to reveal only a shirt underneath. “If there is a situation in which I am shot, then I’ll be shot!” he said.Kim Moon-soo, the candidate for the People’s Power Party and Mr. Lee’s rival, said he had no need to wear a bulletproof vest.Credit...Anthony Wallace/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesMr. Kim has said he wants to decrease the size of his existing security unit, which he says is required to be the same as Mr. Lee’s. Both men have several dozen bodyguards who operate in a three-tiered system.The police are responsible for providing security to presidential candidates. The role is passed on to the presidential guard after a winner is elected.Mr. Kim has tried to distinguish himself from Mr. Lee in every way possible, including his attitude toward safeguarding his public appearances, said Professor Yoon. Mr. Kim is “appealing to his supporters that he’s lived an honest life, he has no reason to fear an attack on his life,” the professor said.In January, the Democratic Party proposed that Mr. Lee wear a bulletproof and knifeproof vest during public appearances in response to multiple online threats to his life. He was seen wearing one during a visit to lawmakers in March who were on a hunger strike calling for the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk Yeol over a failed martial law decree in December. “I feel anxious if I don’t wear it,” he told one lawmaker.Jeon Hyun-hee, a Democratic Party lawmaker, said in a televised party meeting in May that Mr. Lee had faced repeated threats of terrorism, claiming that Russian-made pistols and sniper rifles had been smuggled into South Korea and agents mobilized to target the candidate.“Just like U.S. President Donald Trump, who faced an attempted assassination with a gun, we must consider every possible countermeasure including bulletproof glass barriers on all four sides of the campaign stage,” she said.Polls leading up to the election showed Mr. Lee leading Mr. Kim by more than 10 percentage points.June 2, 2025, 2:26 a.m. ETWhoever becomes the next president in South Korea will not be accepted by a large swath of the polarized society.Credit...Jun Michael Park for The New York TimesThe presidential election in South Korea on Tuesday will be a big step toward stabilizing the country after months of political turbulence. But whoever wins — the left-wing front-runner Lee Jae-myung or his conservative rival Kim Moon-soo — will lead a nation in crisis.South Korea’s economic growth has sputtered to a snail’s pace. Its income gap is wider than ever. Its suicide rates are among the highest, and its birthrates the lowest, in the world. Yet, the country has never been more politically divided — between the left and right, between generations and between young men and women. Whoever becomes the president will not be accepted by a large swath of the polarized society.South Korea also faces formidable challenges from abroad. North Korea is threatening to use its expanding nuclear arsenal against South Korea. Russia has signed a mutual defense treaty with the North and is helping modernize its military. But President Trump has asked why the United States should spend so much money to keep its troops in South Korea. He has also slapped steep tariffs on cars, steel and other products that are crucial for South Korea’s export-driven economy.South Korea needs to repair strained diplomatic ties with China, its largest trade partner, to help spur exports and economic growth. But the United States, its only military ally, is asking it to join efforts to contain China.“A daunting and complex crisis is buffeting us,” said Mr. Lee, the Democratic Party candidate who is leading in the polls. “We must turn the crisis into opportunities.”Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party candidate, who is leading in polls, has said he would use his power to bring the country together and revive the economy.Credit...Jun Michael Park for The New York TimesShould he be elected, Mr. Lee will take office as one of the most powerful leaders since South Korea introduced popular elections in the late 1980s. He will be backed by his Democratic Party, which controls Parliament with a large majority. His party has vowed to push bills through Parliament that critics said would increase his influence over the judiciary.The election is seen as a referendum on former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived imposition of martial law, for which he was expelled from office. That gave Mr. Lee a head start and polls leading up to the election showed him leading Mr. Kim, the candidate of the right-wing People Power Party, by around 10 percentage points.His anticipated victory “is not thanks to any particular policy proposals, but rather a result of Yoon’s spectacular collapse,” said Prof. Leif-Eric Easley of Ewha Womans University in Seoul.Mr. Lee has said he would use his power to bring the country together and revive the economy. But his supporters want him to pass special bills through Parliament to launch more extensive investigations into Mr. Yoon’s martial law and to probe allegations of corruption surrounding his family. Mr. Kim has also promised national healing. But he has stoked the same right-wing fear and indignation that drove Mr. Yoon to send military troops to the Democrat-controlled Parliament to try to impose martial law. He has warned that if elected, Mr. Lee would turn into “a monster” and abuse his immense power for political retribution.Mr. Kim, the candidate of the right-wing People Power Party, has also promised national healing.Credit...Ahn Young-Joon/Associated Press“Political polarization will continue,” said Sung Deuk Hahm, dean of the Graduate School of Political Studies at Kyonggi University. “Lee Jae-myung must show a good economic performance to fend off challenges to the legitimacy of his presidency.”Mr. Lee still faces his own legal jeopardy: he has been on trial on several criminal charges, including violating election laws. There is a legal debate over whether his trials should continue if he wins the election or should be suspended until after his five-year term. The nation’s Constitution doesn’t provide a clear answer. The Constitutional Court will likely have to weigh in.Until then, “uncertainty and confusion will persist,” said Choi Jin, director of the Seoul-based Institute of Presidential Leadership.But if anything, Mr. Lee is a survivor.From a slum to presidential favoriteGrowing up in a slum south of Seoul, he only finished elementary school before he went to work in sweatshops as a teenager. But he eventually became a human rights lawyer, mayor, governor and the head of South Korea’s largest political party and its presidential candidate twice.He lost the 2022 election to Mr. Yoon. His legal troubles deepened, but his image as a victim of political persecution hardened among his supporters, when prosecutors under Mr. Yoon went after him, his family and his former aides with multiple criminal charges. His political fortune shifted after the unpopular Mr. Yoon declared martial law and angry South Koreans pushed back.Mr. Lee’s supporters at a rally in Seoul on Monday.Credit...Jun Michael Park for The New York TimesMr. Lee’s supporters have rallied behind his reputation as an administrator who gets things done — something the country sorely needs after three years of dysfunctional governance under Mr. Yoon. They have also expressed hopes that he would push through long-overdue reforms, such as overhauling the country’s prosecution service, which has been accused of meddling in politics.But his detractors, including elderly voters and the right-wing political elites affiliated with the People Power Party, have called him a dangerous leftist who would undermine South Korea’s alliance with Washington for the sake of improving ties with North Korea and China.Mr. Lee has recognized political polarization as one of the biggest challenges he would face as president. (He narrowly escaped death when he was stabbed in the neck by a politically motivated assailant last year.) But he must tread cautiously in addressing the problem.Mr. Yoon and others involved in the imposition of martial law are standing trial on insurrection charges. While Mr. Lee has promised more investigations, many right-wing South Koreans say that Mr. Lee and his party were also responsible for Mr. Yoon’s martial law, because their obstructive tactics in Parliament forced Mr. Yoon to the extremes.Military vehicles and police near the National Assembly in Seoul following Mr. Yoon’s declaration of martial law in December.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times“People want punishment but if Lee Jae-myung goes too far, he will face accusations of political revenge and persecution,” said Mr. Hahm of Kyonggi University.During the campaign, Mr. Lee vowed to build “national unity,” promising to punish those involved in Mr. Yoon’s martial law but not to indulge in political revenge. He talked less about traditional left-wing causes, like wealth redistribution and higher taxes for the rich, focusing more on economic growth.Mr. Lee would also face a delicate balancing act in diplomacy.He has tried to dispel the right-wing accusation that he was “pro-China” and “anti-U.S.” by emphasizing that the alliance with Washington as the bedrock of South Korean diplomacy. But he has also appealed to his left-wing base by promising to improve ties with China and North Korea without upsetting the alliance with Washington.That strategy has detractors in Washington.A supporter of former President Yoon taking photos with a banner featuring the impeached leader during a rally in March.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times“We know that many countries are tempted by the idea of seeking both economic cooperation with China and defense cooperation with the United States,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Saturday. But “economic dependence on China,” he warned, “only deepens their malign influence and complicates our defense decision space during times of tension.”Mr. Kim has promised to make South Korea a more reliable ally of the United States. But he has also championed an idea that will also disturb policymakers in Washington: South Korea, he said, should reintroduce American tactical nuclear weapons or prepare to build its own nuclear weapons to counter North Korea.May 26, 2025, 12:01 a.m. ETMany young women joined the rallies calling for President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment after he imposed martial law on South Korea in December.Credit...Jun Michael Park for The New York TimesYoung South Korean women are often dismissed by men as apolitical, but they were prominent in the movement to impeach former President Yoon Suk Yeol, whom they accused of encouraging contempt and even hatred for them. They were among the first to take to the streets to condemn Mr. Yoon’s short-lived imposition of martial law in December, enlivening large rallies with K-pop songs and glow sticks.But as South Korea prepares to elect Mr. Yoon’s replacement on June 3, many women say their priorities — making the country safer and fairer for them — are taking a back seat, and not for the first time.They endure some of the worst gender-based discrimination in the developed world, including lower pay and underrepresentation in management and politics, as well as rampant online sexual abuse that the law has done little to stop. But addressing such issues has become one of South Korea’s most politically delicate subjects.With the economy in a slump and jobs scarce, many young men consider themselves victims of reverse discrimination and bristle at any hint of a feminist agenda in government. Mr. Yoon and his right-wing People Power Party leveraged such sentiments to win the young male vote, and the presidency, in 2022. During the campaign, he said there was no structural discrimination against women in South Korea. Lee Jae-myung, who lost that election to Mr. Yoon by a razor-thin margin, has a substantial lead in the polls this time. But though he has recognized the “leading role” that young women played in Mr. Yoon’s ouster, Mr. Lee and his left-wing Democratic Party are being careful not to provoke male voters with messages that could be seen as feminist.Lee Jae-myung, who narrowly lost the 2022 presidential election to Mr. Yoon, has a substantial polling lead in the June 3 election to replace him. Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesAs a result, neither Mr. Lee nor his conservative main rival, Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party, is saying much about women’s issues. Some women have concluded that nothing will change, regardless of who wins.“We only have poor options in this election,” said Park Jia, who leads a gender equality education center run by the Seoul Women’s Association. “Sure, many women will vote for Lee Jae-myung — not because they expect him to be a great leader for women, but because they are desperate to keep the other side, the conservatives, from power and stop the regression.”On average, South Korean women are paid 31 percent less than men, the widest gap in the developed world. They hold less than one-fifth of legislative seats, just three of the government’s 29 top positions and 14.6 percent of senior corporate management roles (the average among wealthy nations is 33.8 percent). All six presidential candidates are men.The country’s only female president, the conservative Park Geun-hye, was impeached in 2016. Many women who joined the rallies that precipitated her ouster said they wanted to drive out a corrupt leader, but they also hoped for a president who would do more to protect them from violent crime and online misogyny. Moon Jae-in, who was elected to replace Ms. Park, promised to be a “feminist president.”But he did not live up to that moniker. An anti-feminist backlash, part of a global trend, kicked in, driven largely by conservative Christian churches and young men. “Feminist” is now such a forbidden word that some women are afraid to use it in online profiles. Some are even reluctant to take women’s studies classes, fearing that they will be targeted for abuse.As part of his bid for young men’s votes in 2022, Mr. Yoon promised to abolish the ministry of gender equality. He did not follow through, but during his presidency, the national gender equality index, which the ministry has compiled since 2010, fell for the first time.When Mr. Yoon declared martial law, women were ready to strike back.A protest against Mr. Yoon in central Seoul in December. Women accused him of fanning misogynistic sentiment to win the young male vote in 2022.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times“For us, it was very personal,” said Jang Hyun-ji, 28, a digital comics artist. “We joined the rallies against him not only because his martial law undermined our democracy, but also because he became president by encouraging hatred and discrimination against women.”Women in their 20s were the most highly represented group in the rallies calling for Mr. Yoon’s ouster, while men of that age were largely “silent” and “cynical,” Hanna Kim, a political scientist at Chinju National University of Education, said in a study published by the East Asia Institute. Young women channeled their K-pop fandom into political activism, supplanting the refrains of hit songs with slogans like “Out, Out, Yoon Suk Yeol Out!”“His impeachment was a victory for women, proof that women have become a leading force in society,” said Park Min-ju, 27, a rally M.C. who interspersed protest music with K-pop.After Mr. Yoon was driven out — the National Assembly impeached him in December, and a court formally removed him last month — women demanded their dividend. Rights groups called on the new government to fill half of its decision-making positions with women. They also wanted more government support for child care, since women are often forced to leave work to care for their children.But for the major presidential candidates, such concerns have been sidelined by the need to chase the elusive, and sharply divided, youth vote. Mr. Lee’s popularity is lowest among men in their 20s and Mr. Kim’s among women in their 20s, according to surveys. But there are also more swing voters among young adults than any other demographic.Campaign banners in Seoul. None of the presidential candidates have said much about the discrimination and misogyny faced by women.Credit...Chung Sung-Jun/Getty ImagesMr. Lee has been careful not to say anything that could galvanize anti-feminist emotions. Some of his campaign promises are aimed at helping women, like tougher punishments for dating violence and digital sex crimes, as well as police hotlines for women who own small businesses like shops and restaurants. Mr. Lee has also said he would require corporations to make gender-based disparities public, including pay gaps.But Mr. Lee has been silent about some of the top priorities among women’s groups, such as anti-discrimination legislation and expanding the definition of rape to include sex without consent (currently, the law requires violence or explicit coercion).“His strategy is to ignore the gender equality agenda, because he sees it as a stumbling block against his election,” the Korea Women’s Political Network, a feminist civic group, said in a statement.Mr. Lee has denied such accusations. He has acknowledged that women face structural discrimination, and he has vowed to create more jobs, saying it would ease the economic stress that fuels gender conflict among young South Koreans.If young female voters are less than satisfied with Mr. Lee, many see Mr. Kim as a worse choice.Kim Moon-soo, the People Power Party’s presidential candidate, campaigning in Seoul this month. Credit...Anthony Wallace/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesMr. Kim says he will seek “gender equality in military service” by letting more women join the armed forces. He wants young men to get workplace benefits after they finish their mandatory military service. To boost South Korea’s low birthrate, Mr. Kim has promised tax breaks and more affordable child care and housing for young people who marry and have children.But women have bristled at appeals from the government to have children, given the difficulty of pursuing both motherhood and a career. Mr. Kim once addressed the birthrate issue by saying that South Korean women would rather take care of a dog than have a baby. He has also been criticized for recruiting a campaign organizer with a reputation for being anti-feminist.Many women say there is no one in the race who clearly deserves their support.“Women like me will never vote for the candidate of the People Power Party,” said Jeong Eun-byeol, a college student. “That makes the Democratic Party treat us like fish already caught.”Still, some are willing to give Mr. Lee the benefit of the doubt.“We don’t have any option other than to trust and vote for him,” said Kim Do-won, 28. “If he is not doing well after his election, we can protest again.”Supporters of Mr. Lee at a rally in Seoul this month.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times