South Korea’s new leader faces tough tests right from the start

Supporters of Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the center-left Democratic Party, pack the street outside the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, as they await election results on Tuesday night, June 3, 2025. Lee, who won election after his opponent conceded early Wednesday, takes office as one of the most powerful presidents that South Korea has elected in recent decades. (Jun Michael Park/The New York Times)

By Choe Sang-Hun

If there is one characteristic that defines Lee Jae-myung, South Korea’s new president, it’s that he is a survivor. He has survived criminal charges, a near-fatal stabbing attack and the martial law enacted by his fiercest enemy, former President Yoon Suk Yeol. Now he is taking on what may be his toughest test yet: leading a deeply divided nation through daunting challenges both at home and abroad.

Lee, who won South Korea’s presidential election after his opponent conceded early Wednesday, takes office as one of the most powerful presidents that South Korea has elected in recent decades. Much of South Korea’s political power is concentrated in the presidency, and Lee will also wield considerable control over the National Assembly, where his Democratic Party holds a large majority of seats. ​

But long is the list of problems that Lee faces.

​The political turmoil set off by Yoon’s short-lived declaration of martial law and his subsequent impeachment and removal​ has exposed a country deeply fractured between the left and right, between generations and between genders. South Korea is ​facing ​mounting pressure from its sole military ally, the United States, even as the nuclear threat from North Korea grows. President Donald Trump has not only slapped South Korea’s export-driven economy with heavy tariffs but also demanded that it pay more to keep U.S. troops on its soil.

Lee warned that the second Trump administration was bringing “the law of the jungle” into international relations. But Lee, 61, who rose to become a charismatic leader of South Korea’s biggest political party after working in a sweatshop in his teens, said he would also rise to this challenge, with “pragmatic diplomacy centered on the national interest.”

“I will crawl between his legs if necessary, if that’s what I have to do for my people,” Lee said this week about Trump. “But I am not a pushover, either. South Korea also has quite a few cards to play in give-and-take negotiations.”

​For Washington, Lee could represent a sharp departure from Yoon, who antagonized China and North Korea and aligned his country more firmly with the United States in the strategic competition between Washington and Beijing. Yoon also won plaudits from Washington for leaving behind his country’s historical grievances to improve ties with Japan, Korea’s former colonial master.

Lee​ and other leaders of his Democratic Party ​are not as enthusiastic about warming up to Japan, which they accused of failing to come clean on the brutalities it inflicted during its colonial rule. Lee has said he will also seek to mend ties with North Korea and China, South Korea’s largest trading partner, while maintaining a strong military alliance with the United States.

​Such a stance could set off alarms in Washington. U.S. officials have been urging South Korea to increase trilateral cooperation with the United States and Japan to contain North Korea and China. Even before Lee won the election, a warning came out from Washington.

“We know that many countries are tempted by the idea of seeking both economic cooperation with China and defense cooperation with the United States,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Saturday. But “economic dependence on China,” he warned, “only deepens their malign influence and complicates our defense decision space during times of tension.”

Lee has spurned his conservative enemies’ accusation that he was “pro-China” and “anti-U.S.” by repeatedly stressing the importance of the alliance with Washington and trilateral cooperation with the United States and Japan for regional security.

“But that doesn’t mean that we have to make enemies of other nations,” he said.

South Korea’s political turmoil began when Yoon declared martial law in December to try to remove Lee and other “anti-state forces” in the National Assembly, who he said had repeatedly used their majority power to obstruct his policies. Yoon’s brazen move outraged South Koreans, who swarmed the streets. Yoon was impeached by the Assembly and in April was officially removed from office by the Constitutional Court, opening the way for Tuesday’s election.

During his short-lived military rule, Yoon had planned to arrest Lee, according to prosecutors. But Lee was the biggest political beneficiary of the​ dramatic collapse of Yoon​’s misjudged martial law, as​ many South Koreans saw him as the only politician with enough political resources to lead the country.

“People are so shocked by the martial law and felt such a threat to their democracy that punishing those responsible was the dominating theme in the election,” said Park Sung-min, CEO of Min Consulting, a Seoul-based political advisory company. “All the potential misgivings people might have about​ Lee Jae-myung’s foreign and economic ​policies and his legal trouble became secondary.”

Lee enters office with legal uncertainty hanging over his head. He has been tried on several charges, including allegations of bribery and election-law violations, and there is debate over whether proceedings should continue or be postponed until after his five-year term. His conservative critics have accused him of using ​the election as a shield against his legal trouble.​ Lee insists that the criminal charges against him are groundless and politically motivated.

​Widely differing views on Lee’s legal trouble are emblematic of the political polarization in South Korea, which has deepened in recent years. No matter who won the election, a large swath of the population would not have accepted the result. Lee vowed to ease the problem by building “national unity.”

He has said he will not seek political revenge, but the right-wing opposition has been skeptical, citing some of Lee’s own words. He has vowed to “ferret out” and “punish” those who collaborated with Yoon in his declaration of martial law.

Eventually, Lee will be ​judged by his performance in revising South Korea’s economy​, analysts said. South Koreans cited ​fixing the economic slump as the most urgent task for the new leader.

“The election was about punishing ​the martial law,” said Shin Yul, a political scientist at Myongji University in Seoul. “But what the people most want​ is stability and a better economy.”