SEOUL — On the night of the final televised debate before South Korea elects a new president, supporters of various political movements converged en masse at the studio hosting the event. What they offered was a vivid demonstration of the raucous, divided state of the country’s politics that awaits the victor in the June 3 election.
After six months of strife in the streets and courts triggered by now-ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol’s Dec. 3 declaration of martial law, candidates including the front-runner in polls, the left-leaning opposition Democratic Party’s (DP) Lee Jae-myung, were met with a wall of sound and color as they made their way into the studio.
