South Korea's ruling Democratic Party, or DPK, won 12 of 16 metropolitan mayor and governor seats in the June 3 local elections, and the conservative People Power Party, or PPP, won the other four, a sharp drop from its earlier 12 seats, Yonhap News Agency reported on June 4. Importantly, the PPP retained the key mayoral seat in Seoul, but a DPK candidate won the mayoral race in the conservative stronghold of Busan.

Parliamentary by-elections for 14 of the National Assembly's 300 seats saw the DPK win nine, the PPP four and an independent one, a drop from the DPK's prior hold on 13 of the 14 seats. The DPK retains a comfortable legislative majority.