South Korea votes in tight presidential race South Korean voters began voting on Wednesday after a presidential campaign full of sweeping promises of change from the two leading candidates. Park Geun-hye, the ruling conservative party candidate, held a razor-thin lead over the liberal Moon Jae-in, according to the final opinion polls published last week. It is illegal to publish poll findings in the five days before the election. The two main candidates have promised to spur "economic democracy" by boosting social spending, cutting university fees and supporting small businesses. While both have pledged to crack down on bad practices at the chaebol conglomerates, analysts say Mr Moon is likely to take a more forceful stance. The liberal contender has pledged to eliminate "circular" shareholding structures that help founding families of the chaebol maintain control. Ms Park, who would become South Korea's first female president - warns that such a move could undermine the companies and the economy as a whole. Mr Moon is expected to enthusiastically pursue a revival of talks with North Korea, while Ms Park is likely to push hard for concessions on its nuclear programme. Local media have speculated in recent days that the weather - with subzero temperatures across the country - could have a major impact on turnout and consequently the result. Polls have shown that Ms Park and Mr Moon enjoy their strongest support among older and younger voters, respectively. In the last presidential election, roughly 76 per cent of people over 50 voted compared with only 47 per cent of voters in their 20s. Mr Moon has spent much of his campaign urging his young supporters to vote. Despite temperatures of minus 10 degrees Celsius - cold even by the standards of a Korean December - a steady stream of voters was passing through one polling station in Jongno, central Seoul on Wednesday morning. Park Yong-moon and Kim Seung-hee, a retired couple in their 70s, said they objected to Mr Moon's "populism," and that Ms Park was more likely to make prudent economic decisions. "Park Geun-hye seems more logical - the president can't just be friends with everybody," Ms Kim said. Han Kyeong-sook, a 50-year-old housewife, said that a female president was more likely to take a "sensitive" approach to social issues. She worried that Mr Moon would revive the policies of the late president Roh Moo-hyun - who he served as chief of staff - and that this would mean economic hardship for the middle class. But young people tended to favour the liberal candidate. Lee Sang-hwa, a 22-year-old statistics student, said that she worried Ms Park would emulate the leadership style of her father, a military strongman who ruled from 1961 to 1979. "Even though I was not alive, I don't like Park Chung-hee as he ran a dictatorship," she said. Moon is better because he cares about people. Polling station officials said turnout on Wednesday was so far significantly higher than in 2007, when many people did not vote because Lee Myung-bak was believed to have a very strong lead. Choi Soo-hoon, a 27-year-old jobseeker, said that nearly all his friends were planning to vote. "It's so close this time, that's the main reason," he said. Additional reporting by Jung Gu-hun in Seoul