South Korea’s prime minister and officials offer to resign after election defeat

National Election Commission officials sort out ballots for counting at the parliamentary election in Seoul (Lee Jin-man/AP)

South Korea’s prime minister and senior presidential officials offered to resign on Thursday, media reports said, after their conservative ruling party suffered a crushing defeat in parliamentary elections.

The results of Wednesday’s election posed a huge political blow to President Yoon Suk Yeol, setting back his domestic agenda and leaving him facing an intensifying political offensive by his liberal opponents during his remaining three years in office.