Seoul, Mar 10 (IANS): The leadership of South Korea's ruling Democratic Party (DP) decided to resign en masse on Thursday following its loss in this week's presidential election.

DP Chairman Song Young-gil announced the decision following a meeting of the party's supreme council after Lee Jae-myung, the party's presidential candidate, was defeated by Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) in Wednesday's election, reports Yonhap News agency.

"We respect the people's decision shown through the votes and humbly accept the results," Song said at a press conference at the National Assembly.

"I plan to resign by holding myself responsible for the election loss," he added.

The party will operate under an emergency steering committee, which will be lead by DP floor leader Yun Ho-jung. The party is reviewing on electing a new floor leader before March 25.

With all the votes counted, the PPP's Yoon received 48.56 per cent of the vote and the DP's Lee got 47.83 per cent in Wednesday's election, according to the National Election Commission.

The 0.73 percentage-point gap makes this year's election the closest ever.