The new South Korean administration will likely make efforts to buy time for U.S. trade talks, as it studies the negotiations of bigger neighbours Japan and China for leverage, according to sources familiar with the ruling party's thinking.

South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party nominee Lee Jae-myung holds a clear lead in the presidential election, according to an exit poll released soon after the voting ended on Tuesday.

Liberal candidate Lee Jae-myung is forecast to win South Korea’s snap presidential election, a joint exit poll showed, two months after his archrival and then conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol was