The elections are ostensibly about the 300 seats in Parliament, but when South Koreans go to the polls on Wednesday, they will also be signaling support for one of two leaders who are locked in what is known here as “gladiator politics.”
这次选举表面上是为了争夺国会的300个议席，但当韩国人周三投票时，他们也将向两位领导人之一发出支持的信号，两人正在进行被韩国人称为“角斗士政治”的角逐。
The do-or-die rivalry between President Yoon Suk Yeol and the opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, whose party holds the majority in the National Assembly, has made the elections as fraught with fear and resentment as any in South Korean history. Neither leader commands broad popularity, instead relying on hard-line supporters who either want to see Mr. Yoon, a conservative, impeached for abuse of power, or Mr. Lee, a progressive, imprisoned for corruption.
总统尹锡悦和反对党领袖李在明（他所在的政党在国会占多数席位）之间你死我活的竞争，使这次选举和韩国历史上的选举一样，充满恐惧和怨恨。两位领导人都没有得到广泛的民众基础，而是依靠强硬的支持者，这些人要么希望看到保守派的尹锡悦因滥用权力而被弹劾，要么希望进步派的李在明因腐败而入狱。
“This election is about who you want to punish, Yoon Suk Yeol or Lee Jae-myung,” said Eom Kyeong-young, an election analyst at the Zeitgeist Institute in Seoul.
“这次选举是关于你想惩罚谁，尹锡悦还是李在明，”首尔时代精神研究所的选举分析师严庆荣（音）说。
On the global stage, South Korea is the dynamic exporter of cars, phones, K-pop and K-dramas. But at home, voter discontent runs deep. The country’s economy is slowing. Its birthrate is the world’s lowest. Its Gen Z youth — frustrated with widening economic inequity and priced out of the housing market — fear that they will be the first generation in the country’s history economically worse off than their parents.
在国际舞台上，韩国是汽车、手机、韩国流行乐和韩剧的活跃出口国。但在国内，选民的不满情绪根深蒂固。该国的经济正在放缓。它的出生率是世界上最低的。Z世代的年轻人对日益扩大的经济不平等感到沮丧，他们因为房价过高而被住房市场拒之门外，担心自己将成为这个国家历史上第一代经济状况比父母差的人。
Amid these fundamental crises, the country’s politics are more divided than ever. Online demagoguery proliferates through YouTube and other social media, mainstreaming hate. In January, a disgruntled older man stabbed Mr. Lee in the neck with a knife. (The attacker said South Korea was “in a civil war,” adding that he wanted to “cut the head” of the country’s “pro-North Korean” left wing, according to a manifesto he sent from his prison cell to Choo Chin-woo, an investigative journalist.) A few weeks later, an angry youth attacked a governing-party lawmaker, striking her in the head with a stone.
有了这些根本性的危机，这个国家的政治比以往任何时候都更加分裂。网上的煽动言论通过YouTube和其他社交媒体激增，使得仇恨成为主流。今年1月，一名心怀不满的老人用刀刺伤了李在明的脖子。这名袭击者在狱中发给调查记者朱震禹（音）一份宣言，声称韩国“处于内战”，还说他想“砍下”韩国那些“亲朝鲜”左翼的脑袋。几周后，一名愤怒的年轻人袭击了一名执政党议员，用石头砸中她的头部。
Mr. Yoon and Mr. Lee’s parties have released reams of similar campaign promises on how to address problems like the country’s dismal birthrate. But their campaign focus, analysts said, has been on demonizing their rivals.
在解决韩国低出生率等问题上，尹锡悦和李在明的政党也发布了大量类似的竞选承诺。但分析人士说，他们的竞选重点一直是将对手妖魔化。
South Korea’s politics have long been dominated by revenge and resentment, so much so they have become a vindictive “gladiators’ arena,” Cho Youngho, a political science professor at Sogang University, wrote in an analysis last month. Presidents, elected for a single, five-year term, have often pursued their predecessors or domestic rivals with criminal investigations, creating a vicious cycle of political retaliation.
西江大学政治学教授赵永浩（音）在上个月的一篇分析文章中写道，长期以来，复仇和怨恨一直主导着韩国的政治，令韩国变成了一个充满报复的“角斗士竞技场”。当选的总统任期为五年，通常会对前任或国内竞争对手进行刑事调查，从而形成政治报复的恶性循环。
Mr. Yoon and Mr. Lee first clashed in the 2022 presidential election, a race South Korean news media deemed “a contest between the unlikable.” Mr. Yoon beat Mr. Lee by a narrow margin. Their rivalry has only intensified since then.
尹锡悦和李在明第一次交锋是在2022年的总统选举中，韩国新闻媒体认为那次竞选是“不受欢迎者之间的较量”。 尹锡悦以微弱优势击败了李在明。从那时起，他们之间的竞争愈演愈烈。
Under Mr. Yoon, state prosecutors have pursued Mr. Lee, his wife and his former aides with a series of investigations. Mr. Lee has been indicted on bribery and other criminal charges, accusations he denies. Denounced as a “criminal suspect” by Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party, he has failed to win an audience with the president to discuss policies. 在尹锡悦的领导下，韩国检方对李在明夫妇和他的前助手展开了一系列调查。李在明被控贿赂和其他刑事指控，但他予以否认。他被尹锡悦的国民力量党斥为“犯罪嫌疑人”，未能获得与总统讨论政策的机会。
Instead of stepping aside after his electoral loss, Mr. Lee was back in the center of politics within a few months. He won a parliamentary seat and, in effect, a political shield from prosecutors. And Mr. Lee, who wants to run again for president in 2027, also tightened his grip on his Democratic Party.
李在明在选举失败后没有辞职，而是在几个月内重新回到了政治中心。他赢得了一个议会席位，实际上等于获得了政治庇护，得以不被检察官起诉。李在明希望在2027年再次竞选总统，并加强了对他所在的共同民主党的控制。
He has since made it his mission to fight what he says is Mr. Yoon’s “dictatorship by prosecutors,” staging a three-week hunger strike.
从那以后，他开始了为期三周的绝食抗议，把反对其所谓尹锡悦“检察官专制”作为自己的使命。
Mr. Lee’s party has refused to endorse Mr. Yoon’s cabinet nominees. Mr. Yoon has vetoed parliamentary bills passed by Mr. Lee’s party, including one mandating an investigation of corruption claims involving the first lady, Kim Keon Hee.
李在明的政党拒绝支持尹锡悦的内阁人选。尹锡悦否决了李在明领导的政党通过的国会议案，其中包括要求对第一夫人金建希的腐败指控进行调查。
In parliamentary polls, South Koreans often vote for the parties and their leaders, not for individual candidates. About 20 percent of eligible voters want to see both Mr. Yoon and Mr. Lee punished, and this election could be decided by how they eventually vote, said Jeong Han Wool, a polling expert at the Research Institute of Korean People. 在议会选举中，韩国人往往投票给政党及其领导人，而不是投给作为个人的候选人。韩国人民研究所的民调专家郑汉武（音）说，大约20%的合格选民希望看到尹锡悦和李在明都受到惩罚，这次选举可能取决于他们最终的投票结果。
A victory for Mr. Lee’s Democratic Party would help revive his presidential prospects — as well as his efforts to pass new bills for special prosecutors to investigate accusations of corruption and abuse of power involving Mr. Yoon’s government and his wife.
如果李在明的共同民主党获胜，将有助于重振他当选总统的前景，也有助于他推动通过新议案，让特别检察官调查涉及尹锡悦政府及其夫人的腐败和滥用权力指控。
The election is mainly a contest between the two largest parties for parliamentary majority. But a host of small and even obscure startup parties have also joined the fray. Candidates of Mr. Lee’s party and two small parties closely allied with it are running their campaign with calls to “punish” Mr. Yoon or turn him into an early “lame” or “dead duck.”
这次选举主要是两个最大政党争夺议会多数席位的较量。但许多小型甚至不知名的新建政党也加入了竞争。李在明所在政党的候选人以及与其关系密切的两个小政党在竞选活动中呼吁“惩罚”尹锡悦，或者让他早日成为“跛鸭”或“死鸭”。
“An election defeat will leave Yoon hardly able to do anything until his term expires,” said Shin Yul, a political scientist at Myongji University in Seoul.
首尔明知大学的政治学家申烈（音）说：“如果选举失败，在任期结束之前，尹锡悦几乎什么都做不了。”
Mr. Yoon and Mr. Lee hail from sharply different backgrounds, making their clash not only political but also cultural.
尹锡悦和李在明的背景截然不同，因此他们的冲突不仅是政治上的，也是文化上的。
Mr. Yoon, a son of a college professor, was an elite prosecutor, rising to the ranks of prosecutor-general before becoming president. His supporters praise him for strengthening ties with the United States in the face of nuclear threats from North Korea. But his detractors call him a hamfisted elitist who favors the rich and uses coercive measures to silence critics.
尹锡悦是大学教授的儿子，是一名精英检察官，在成为总统之前曾担任检察总长。支持者称赞他在面对朝鲜核威胁时加强了与美国的关系。但批评者称他是一个拙劣的精英主义者，偏袒富人，使用强制措施来压制批评者。
Under Mr. Yoon, prosecutors and the police have raided news outlets accused of spreading “fake news.” State regulators have reprimanded a TV station for not attaching the Korean equivalent of “first lady” or “Ms.” to the name of Mr. Yoon’s wife. His bodyguards gagged and removed an opposition lawmaker and a student who shouted criticism at Mr. Yoon during government and campus events. In its 2024 Democracy Report, the V-Dem Institute of Sweden ranked South Korea under Mr. Yoon as one of the 42 countries undergoing “autocratization.”
在尹锡悦的领导下，检察官和警方突击搜查了被控传播“假新闻”的新闻机构。国家监管机构谴责一家电视台，因为它没有在尹锡悦妻子的名字后面加上韩语的“第一夫人”或“夫人”字样。他的保镖堵住一名反对派议员和一名学生的嘴，将他们带走，因为他们分别在政府和校园活动中大声批评尹锡悦。瑞典的V-Dem研究所在《2024年民主报告》中，将尹锡悦领导的韩国列为42个“专制国家”之一。
Mr. Lee, a son of public toilet cleaners, was a teenage sweatshop worker in rubber and glove factories before becoming a labor lawyer, a mayor and a provincial governor. His supporters see him as an outspoken outsider who can fix establishment politics. But his critics call him a devious populist who cut corrupt deals while in office and quashed dissenting voices within his party in attempts to consolidate power.
李在明是公共厕所清洁工的儿子，青少年时期曾在生产橡胶和手套的血汗工厂工作，后来成为劳工律师、市长和知事。支持者认为他是一个敢于直言的局外人，可以修复建制政治。但批评者称他是一个狡猾的民粹主义者，执政期间进行腐败交易，在党内压制反对声音，试图巩固权力。
Mr. Lee is now on trial on charges of giving illegal favors to a private investor in a real estate project while he was a mayor. Another accusation prosecutors have made is that when he was a governor, he asked a local businessman to illegally transfer $8 million to North Korea to promote economic exchanges with his province.
李在明目前正在受审，他被控担任市长期间在一个房地产项目上向一名私人投资者提供非法帮助。检察官提出的另一项指控是，他在担任知事期间，要求当地一名商人非法向朝鲜转移800万美元，以促进与他所在省份的经济交流。
Many analysts expect the coming election to amplify polarization in the country.
许多分析人士预计，即将到来的选举将加剧该国的两极分化。
“Politics will continue to be dominated by a struggle between the one who wants to kill and the one who wants to survive,” said Mr. Cho of Sogang University. “Issues the people care about — the livelihoods of the public, the economy, low birthrates and welfare — take a back seat.”
“政治将继续被想要杀人者和想要生存者之间的斗争所主导，”西江大学的赵永浩说。“人们关心的民生、经济、低出生率和福利等问题都退居次要地位。”
Choe Sang-Hun是时报驻首尔的首席记者，报道韩国和朝鲜新闻。
翻译：晋其角
