Lee Jae-myung of South Korea's majority liberal Democratic Party was elected president, the ongoing vote count by the National Election Commission showed on Wednesday.
With 94.4 percent of the votes counted after midnight, Lee won 48.8 percent and his major rival Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party took 42.0 percent, the National Election Commission data showed.
Even if all the remaining uncounted votes go to Kim, Lee will win the presidential by-election, confirming his victory.
Local broadcaster JTBC and three terrestrial broadcasters including KBS, MBC and SBS forecast earlier that Lee was certain to be elected the country's 21st president.
Preliminary voter turnout reached 79.4 percent, marking the highest in 28 years since the voting rate recorded 80.7 percent in 1997.
Out of about 44.39 million eligible voters, some 35.24 million cast their ballots at 14,295 polling stations across the country.
The voter turnout, which included those who participated in early voting last Thursday and Friday, was up from 77.1 percent tallied in the previous presidential election in 2022.
Lee Jae-myung elected South Korea's president
Lee Jae-myung elected South Korea's president
China and Canada are complementary in their resources and the two countries can tap the full potential of their win-win cooperation for their good, former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said in Beijing.
He made the remarks during an exclusive interview with China Media Group (CMG) ahead of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's visit to China.
Carney will pay an official visit to China from January 14 to 17, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Monday.
"I hope that the visit of the prime minister of Canada, it will be a new departure in the relation between Canada and China. And because of the turmoil created by the president of the United States, we are looking for diversifying our economy with other nations. And my judgment always said that China and Canada are complementary. You have the people, we have the land, we have the resources, and we have some people, too. So, we can help each other to grow in peace and prosperity," he said.
Regarding how to resolve differences, Chretien said dialog is always the best way out.
"I believe in dialog. If we have disagreement, we have to talk about it. But at the end, every nation is a sovereign nation. So, we have to respect that, too. It's internal decision by the people of China to decide the future of China like it is for the Canadians to decide the future of Canada," he said.
China, Canada should leverage complementarity for mutual benefit: former Canadian PM
