Banners showing South Korea’s two main presidential candidates Lee Jae-myung, left, and Kim Moon-soo, right. The June 3 election outcome will have an impact on the country’s foreign policy.

South Korea’s economic growth has sputtered to a snail’s pace. Its income gap is wider than ever. Its suicide rates are among the highest, and its birthrates the lowest, in the world.

South Korea’s fertility rate rose in 2024 for the first time in nine years, supported by an increase in marriages, preliminary data showed on Wednesday, in a sign that the country’s ...