Ex-commando Moon Jae-in favourite to win South Korean election

Former commando and human rights lawyer Moon Jae-in is favourite to win South Korea's presidential election on Tuesday, as voters look to deal with North Korea's intensifying nuclear threat, kick-starting the economy and second-guessing Donald Trump.

As candidates made their final rounds of campaigning in swirling dust storms blown in from China, the 64-year-old human rights lawyer of the liberal Democratic Party has a strong showing of 42.4 per cent in the polls.

This gives him a commanding lead over his nearest rivals, Ahn Cheol-soo of the centre-left People’s Party and Hong Joon-pyo of the former ruling Liberty Korea Party, both tied at 18.6 per cent. In all, there are 13 candidates but realistically there are five contenders.

The election was brought about by the downfall of ex-president Park Geun-hye, who is in jail after her impeachment in March following a corruption and influence-peddling scandal.

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Nuclear weapons tests

Everyday life in South Korea is overshadowed by the growing nuclear threat from the North, which has accelerated its nuclear weapons tests and missile launches.

In early voting on Thursday and Friday, 11 million people, or 26 per cent of the electorate, cast their ballots. An 80 per cent turnout is expected after voting is completed on Tuesday.

The child of refugees from North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean War, Mr Moon was expelled from Kyunghee University for protesting against dictator Park Chung-hee, father of Park Geun-hye, to whom he lost the 2012 election.

He became a human rights lawyer, but was forbidden from practising because of his protester past. Conscripted into the military, he became a special forces soldier.

In 1976, North Korean troops used axes to kill two American soldiers, who were cutting down a tree near Panmunjeom in the Demilitarised Zone that runs between North and South Korea. Mr Moon was part of the commando unit that went in to chop down the tree in response in a show of force. He has cited his military experience when defending himself against charges from the conservatives that he is weak on North Korea and security issues.

He was eventually appointed chief of staff to former president Roh Moo-hyun.

US-South Korean relations

On North Korea Mr Moon believes in sanctions and in pressuring China to engage more, and he has indicated he would be willing to have dialogue with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Although they are miles apart in most ways, his views on North Korea are not so far from those of US president Donald Trump, but his view on the deployment of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (Thaad) antimissile system could bring the allies into conflict.

He has criticised the decision to install Thaad so soon before the elections. Mr Trump's pronouncements about getting Seoul to pay more for its defence against North Korea, as well as revising a trade agreement, could see divisions opening up in US-South Korean relations.

On the economy, Mr Moon has focused on job creation. He has promised to recruit 12,000 more public officials in the second half of this year using a supplementary budget and overall he has pledged to create nearly a million jobs during his first year.

“Moon will be the president of job creation and will create 810,000 new jobs mainly in the public sector while in office,” Yun Ho-jung, chief policymaker of Mr Moon’s election campaign, told a press briefing in Seoul.

Mr Moon’s campaign was boosted after a group of 300 North Korean defectors gave him their support.