Tuesday’s presidential election saw the easiest win ever in Korean history, with Moon Jae-in taking 5.57 million more votes than runner-up Hong Joon-pyo.

It was a drastic change from the 2012 election when Moon lost the presidency by just over 2 percent.

The liberal president took the top spot in all regions across the country, except for the traditionally conservative stronghold of North and South Gyeongsang provinces and Daegu. 

Conservative candidate Hong Joon-pyo of the Liberty Korea Party won an easy victory by a margin of 26.9 percentage points and 23.6 percentage points in North Gyeongsang Province and Daegu. This was despite backlash from the corruption scandal involving jailed former conservative President Park Geun-hye, who Hong had said he would pardon if he was elected. However, in South Gyeongsang Province, the margin was just 0.5 percentage point.

Even Seongju-gun County -- which had fiercely opposed the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system -- gave more than half of their votes to Hong, who had publicly supported stationing the US missile defense system there.

Apart from these areas, Moon saw the majority vote in the rest of the country.

Over 40 percent of votes from Seoul and Gyeonggi Province were for Moon, with his rivals receiving no less than 22.9 percent of votes. Moon even garnered an easy victory in North and South Jeolla provinces and Gwangju, which is a political stronghold for Ahn Cheol-soo’s People’s Party.

The differences between generations in terms of political orientation were prevalent as ever in the 2017 election.

According to exit polls, Moon received 47.4 percent, 56.9 percent, and 52.4 percent of votes from those in their 20s, 30s and 40s, respectively. Ahn, who was in third place, saw the second-highest level of support among younger voters, with 17.9 percent, 18 percent and 22.2 percent of votes from those in their 20s, 30s and 40s, respectively.

Support from 50-something voters was relatively evenly split, with Moon, Hong and Ahn receiving 36.9 percent, 26.8 percent and 25.4 percent of votes, respectively

Hong took a huge lead among voters in their 60s and those in their 70s and above, with 45.8 percent and 50.9 percent of those age groups supporting him, respectively.

On the other hand, Moon received just 24.5 percent and 22.3 percent of votes from those groups.

Pundits said the differences in votes among the age groups appear to stem from concerns over Moon’s position on national security. Moon, who was the right-hand man of former President Roh Moo-hyun, has leaned toward diplomacy when dealing with North Korea.

Older voters generally show more hostility toward the North and prefer conservative candidates who put more emphasis on military options. However, exit polls showed that younger voters were more inclined toward Moon’s pledge to wage war on corruption.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)