South Korea's conservatives have staged unlikely comebacks before. Yoon is the second conservative president in a row to be removed from office, after Park Geun-hye was impeached and jailed in a corruption scandal in 2017.

South Korean stocks and won gained, as Lee Jae-myung’s widely-expected win in the presidential election ended a months-long political leadership vacuum. The nation’s stock benchmark Kospi jumped 1.5%.

South Korea’s presidential election result was never really in doubt. The real question is which version of Lee Jae-myung will now govern the highly polarized nation of 50 million.