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 Koreans headed to the polls Tuesday to elect a new president after an attempt to impose martial law at the end of last year triggered its worst constitutional crisis in decades.

South Korea's centre-left leader Lee Jae-myung hailed voters' "great decision" as he was declared the winner of a snap presidential election early Wednesday, capping months of political chaos.

(Reuters) -South Korea has elected liberal Lee Jae-myung as president to lead the country through a tumultuous period that will require negotiating trade tariffs with the U.S. and mending the scars from his ousted predecessor's shock martial law declaration.

The debilitating political vacuum that has reigned in Seoul since South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s impeachment on December 14 has finally ended. On June 3, Lee Jae-myung won South Korea’s presidential election by a decisive margin.

Facing a complex set of thorny challenges at home and abroad, Lee Jae-myung says he will deal with them with “pragmatism.”