Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, also the acting president, made the announcement, saying that election day would be a temporary public holiday in order to ensure that people can vote.

The post of president is vacant at the moment because the previous occupant, Yoon Suk Yeol (right), declared martial law in late 2024, in an attempt to forestall parliamentary action against him. Yoon, a former prosecutor general, had claimed that opposition forces, perhaps aided by rival North Korea, were interfering with government business. The National Assembly at the time was considering a budget bill, and Yoon's government was also under a cloud emanating from a series of political scandals. As troops converged on the parliament buildlng, thousands of protesters stood in their way. No large-scale conflict ensued.

Less than two hours after Yoon declared martial law, the National Assembly voted to impeach him, and the country's high court upheld that impeachment, meaning that he was removed from office, on April 4, 2025. South Korean law states that a vacancy in the presidency necessitates an election within 60 days. Yoon still faces charges of insurrection in connection with the martial law declaration; if convicted, he faces a term of life in prison.

Shortly after Han assumed the role of acting president, he, too, faced impeachment. The constitutional court overturned that impeachment, however.

Yoon, of the People Power Party, won the presidency in 2022, by a very small margin over Lee Jae-myung, leader of the opposition Democratic Party. Lee is expected to run again, although he has faced recent legal troubles. Kim Moon-soo resigned as labor minister in order to run for the top job.

Yoon was not the first South Korean leader to be removed from office. In 2017, the constitutional court upheld the National Assembly's impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, in connection with a corruption scandal involving a close friend. Park was the first female president in the country's history and left under a cloud of suspicion. The subsequent election resulted in the presidency of Moon Jae-in, who served until 2022.