Polls closed in South Korea on Wednesday evening, after a large turnout of voters cast their ballot in an election likely to have deep ramifications for the US-China competition and efforts to rein in Kim Jong-un’s nuclear ambitions. Whoever wins what has been billed as a race between Lee Jae-myung, of the liberal governing Democratic Party, and Yoon Suk-yeol, of the conservative opposition People Power Party, will face a plethora of domestic issues once in office, not least among them skyrocketing house prices and unemployment. But it is the two front runners’ starkly opposed positions on how to engage the nuclear-armed North Korea and navigate the increasingly acrimonious relationship of the United States and China that has really captured the attention of observers overseas. Voters wearing masks queued up at polling stations across the country on Wednesday to cast their ballots, despite a spike in Omicron cases that saw the country report a record daily high of 342,446 infections. Once inside the stations, voters must present their IDs and in return receive a strip of paper with the names of the 14 candidates on it, including those of two participants who withdrew only after the ballots were printed. Voters then enter a curtained-off booth to mark their ballot. The stations opened at 6am local time and are officially scheduled to close at 6pm but those who have been infected with the virus have been asked to cast their ballots between 6pm and 7.30pm. Results of exit polls will be announced at 7.30pm though observers caution that the results of these may be unreliable because the race is too tight to call before the official tally is completed. The exit polls will fail to cover some 37 per cent of the 44 million eligible voters who took part in early voting last Friday and Saturday and some one million voters who have tested positive for the virus. The final result may not be known until dawn on Thursday. The race so far has been blighted by allegations of sleaze and scandals. South Korea election: who’s running and what’s their China policy? “Whoever wins this election, the most serious challenge will be how to get over the divide and heal wounds to achieve national unity at a time when this country faces a raft of formidable challenges”, said Choi Jin, head of the think tank Institute of Presidential Leadership in Seoul. The victor will be granted a single five-year term – the country has barred re-election since 1987 in a move aimed at drawing a line under decades of authoritarian rule – during which they will need to tackle housing problems, high unemployment, inequality and increasingly bellicose threats from neighbouring Pyongyang. Navigating the mounting rivalry between the US and China – South Korea’s biggest ally and its top trading partner, respectively – is also likely to provide an early test of the new leader, particularly as global diplomatic fault lines widen due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine . Lee versus Yoon Lee, 57, presents himself as a champion of the underprivileged, leveraging his past as a child labourer who worked his way up to become a lawyer, then get elected as a city mayor and later governor of the important Gyeonggi province. He is campaigning on his track record as an efficient administrator and has attacked what he sees as his rival Yoon’s lack of experience. Yoon, 61, is a hard-nosed former prosecutor general who has vowed to eradicate corruption and accused Lee of receiving kickbacks from a real estate development project while he was mayor of Seongnam. Lee has denied the allegations and accused Yoon of being involved in the same scandal. In South Korea, women use presidential preferences to decide who to date Yoon and his wife have both struggled to fend off claims that they are influenced by shamans and fortune-tellers, while Yoon’s wife has also had to apologise after being found to have lied on her resume when applying for jobs at universities in 2007 and 2013. Lee’s wife has had to apologise too, after she was found to have illegally used a government-issued credit card for private purposes. “Hitler”, “Mussolini” and “parasites” are some of the insults Yoon and his camp have levelled at Lee, while Lee’s side has used taunts of “beast”, “dictator” and “an empty can”. Lee’s side has also derided the alleged plastic surgery of Yoon’s wife. The campaign teams and supporters of both sides have filed dozens of lawsuits alleging libel and the spread of false information, among other accusations. Policy divide The deep divide between the two candidates is reflected in their different stances on international affairs. Lee wants sanctions on North Korea to be eased at the same time as Pyongyang takes steps to denuclearise – on the condition that sanctions would “snap back” if North Korea reverses its disarmament. He also wants to continue with the policies of outgoing president Moon Jae-in , under whom the South agreed not to deploy any more of the US-made THAAD anti-missile defence systems on its soil and also not to forge a three-way military alliance with the US and Japan. South Korea first decided to deploy a THAAD system in 2016, angering China – which sees the systems as a security threat – and prompting a Chinese boycott of South Korean goods and businesses. In contrast, Yoon has called for a tougher stance toward the North and closer cooperation with the US and Japan to cope with Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile threats. He has endorsed the possibility of a “pre-emptive” strike at the North’s nuclear sites if necessary. South Korea, US envoys to meet after North’s latest missile test Yoon has accused the ruling liberal government of being “pro-China, even when Korean people, especially young Koreans, dislike China”. He has also vowed to deploy more THAAD systems, despite concerns that China could hit back with fresh economic reprisals. Yoon also wants to cooperate more with the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad – a grouping of the US, Japan, India and Australia – and to take part in US President Joe Biden’s new supply chain initiative that would reduce dependence on China. Warned Professor Kim Yong-hyun of Dongguk University: “Yoon favours strong military power and an alliance with the United States as a means to maintain order in the region. This policy option would likely raise tension in the region.” Additional reporting by Associated Press, Reuters