Yoon Suk Yeol of the People Power Party(PPP) has been confirmed as South Korea's new president.
 
The National Election Commission(NEC) said that the counting of votes for the presidential election finished Thursday morning. Out of a total 34 million voters who cast their ballots, 48-point-56 percent chose Yoon to be the country's 20th president.
 
Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party(DP) finished second with 47-point-83 percent of the vote. Sim Sang-jung of the Justice Party came in third with two-point-37 percent.
 
Lee and Sim both conceded defeat.
 
Earlier exit poll results released by the country's three terrestrial broadcasters KBS, MBC, and SBS had predicted a tight race between Yoon and Lee, with Yoon garnering 48-point-four percent of support and Lee winning 47-point-eight percent.
 
With the difference between the two leading candidates standing at zero-point-73 percentage points, it is the closest presidential election since a direct electoral system was implemented in South Korea in 1987.
 
The closest presidential election before this year's election was in 1997 when Kim Dae-jung was elected to be the 15th president, winning with a mere one-point-53 percentage point gap against his opponent Lee Hoe-chang.
 
Yoon's win comes less than a year after he announced his will to enter politics.
 
Yoon Suk Yeol served as the prosecutor general under President Moon Jae-in from 2019 to 2021. He stepped down from the position in March 2021 following months of conflict with the administration over weakening the prosecution's power and investigations into the president's allies.
 
His main pledges include establishing an emergency COVID-19 relief headquarters under the president, supplying more homes to bring down runaway property prices and overhauling the presidential office. He also promises to pursue carbon neutrality through reliance on both renewable and nuclear energy.
 
Yoon will serve as the 20th president of the Republic of Korea for the next five years, with his term beginning on May 10.