What is the difference between the leading and the lagging strand in DNA replication?

DNA replication is a semi-conservative process, which creates an identical replica of an already existing DNA double helix sequence. During DNA replication, the two antiparallel DNA strands are split in to the 'leading' and the 'lagging' strand by the enzyme DNA Helicase. This creates an open structure called the replication fork. By seperating the strands, free nucleotides have easy access to bond to the strand through complementary base pairing. The base A (adenine) bonds to T (thymine) and base G (guanine) bonds to C (cytosine) through hydrogen bonding. An enzyme called RNA primer adds a primer to the 3prime end of each strand. A primer is a short sequence of complementary base pairing, to get the whole system running. After this, the replication enzyme DNA Polymerase III can attach free nucleotides to the strands through complementary base pairing. DNA polymerase III moves in a 5prime to 3prime direction. The leading strand of DNA undergoes complementary base pairing smoothly as it runs in the direction from 5prime to 3prime, the same as the direction in which DNA Polymerase III works. However, the lagging strand runs in the opposite direction, from 3prime to 5prime. This means nucleotides can only be added discontinuously. RNA primers have to attach where they can, which is at different parts along the strand, to be able to initiate strand synthesis. This creates small fragments of DNA that have undergone complementary base pairing called okazaki fragments. These can later be linked together by another enzyme called DNA ligase to create a full strand, to complete DNA replication.