Rising Food Prices Strikes and How to Pay for an Aging Population

Familiar themes then as South Koreans voted today.

Live from the BBC World Service, this is the Marketplace Morning Report,

Will Bain.

In for Leanna Byrne today, great as always to have your company.

Yes, South Koreans have been voting for a new parliament, an exit poll

suggests the opposition Democratic Party may well be in the lead.

The vote is widely seen as a midterm referendum on

President Eun-Sukyo's government which has faced a cost of living crisis and a long

running strike by the country's doctors. The BBC's Gene McKenzie in the capital Soul reports.

President Eun has had a turbulent time in office so far.

The opposition party has controlled the parliament throughout his term,

meaning he's been unable to forge ahead with much of his agenda or tackle an array of urgent issues,

from rising food prices, a rapidly ageing population and an ongoing doctor's strike.

If his party does not win a majority,

Mr. Eun's leadership will be further weakened. He could leave office with little to show for his time

other than his foreign policy achievements. His major success has been building up relations

with Tokyo and Washington to counter China and North Korea, but that will have little

bearing on this election. South Koreans will be voting in line with their

wallets more than anything.

The BBC's G. Mackenzie reporting from Seoul.

Now in the past few minutes a major blow potentially to the international sanctions regime set in place to try

...