South Korea is holding snap elections on May 9, following the impeachment of Park Geun-hye. The latest opinion polls put Moon Jae-in, former party chairman of the Democratic United Party (DUP), in the lead with 36.2 percent of support. Ahn Hee-jung - also from the DUP - and Ahn Cheol-soo from the People's Party followed in second and third place respectively. 

Former president Park Geun-hye was ousted on March 10. The South Korean constitution requires that her replacement must be elected within 60 days.

Moon Jae-in has previously expressed opposition to the controversial deployment of the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea, saying “the issue of whether or not to deploy THAAD should be pushed to the next government.”

However, earlier this week, he expressed criticism of alleged economic actions taken in China against South Korea, including boycotts of Korean goods. In a debate with other presidential candidates, Moon said “we should complain about what needs to be complained about, and we should make diplomatic efforts to persuade China. It is also not desirable for China to harm our relationship with excessive retaliation."

China has denied taking any action against South Korean businesses, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang saying "instead of chasing shadows that don't exist, we hope the South Korean side will heed the voice of the people and take concrete actions to avoid causing further damage to bilateral relations."