South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Monday he sees his final year in office as the last chance to achieve a lasting peace with North Korea, and said it was time to take action amid stalled talks over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs. Photo: VCG

 A South Korean politician who once said he aspired to be a "successful Bernie Sanders" is leading the field to replace Moon Jae-in as president after rising to prominence with an aggressive pandemic response and a populist economic agenda.

Lee Jae-myung, the governor of Gyeonggi province, has led in many recent national polls and dominated the early rounds of the ruling liberal Democratic Party primary, including the latest voting over the weekend. As governor, Lee advocated for universal basic income and instituted cash payments to all 24-year-old people for a year. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, all province residents also received regular payments. Under Lee, Gyeonggi also took aggressive steps to combat the pandemic, introducing restrictions on gatherings that were later adopted by the national government, raiding a church at the center of a large outbreak, and imposing a controversial requirement that all foreign residents be tested.

His outsider image was once seen as a liability in the face of establishment competitors with closer ties to the outgoing Moon.