From triumph to Trump: S. Korea President Lee Jae-myung starts term with full plate

Straits Times

2 days ago

South Korean new President Lee Jae-myung (centre) and his wife Kim Hye-kyung after attending the Presidential Inauguration at the National Assembly in Seoul, on June 4. PHOTO: EPA-EFE
– Freshly minted South Korea President Lee Jae-myung has hit the ground running, just hours after winning the snap election of June 3. And among the many urgent matters awaiting him is to get the attention of his American counterpart Donald Trump.
Officials from Washington and Seoul are hurrying to set up a congratulatory phone call between Mr Trump and Mr Lee to happen as early as June 5, which would, hopefully, serve as a precursor to a face-to-face meeting in the near future.
Local media reported that the two possible windows for a Trump-Lee meeting could be at the Group of Seven Summit in Canada from June 15-17, and the Nato summit set for June 24-25 in the Netherlands, both of which South Korea has been invited to attend.
Mr Lee's first day in office on June 4 coincides with Washington's deadline for trading partners to submit their 'best proposals' to the table, ahead of the July 9 expiry of the 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs. The doubling of steel and aluminium tariffs from 25 per cent to 50 per cent by the United States also took effect from June 4, and South Korea was among the countries hit.
Speaking on a radio show on the eve of the election, Mr Lee had expressed confidence that he and his team would be able to reach 'compromise and adjustment in a way that benefits both sides' with the US , even putting aside his dignity when speaking to Mr Trump, if need be .
'If that is the way powerful countries operate, we must overcome it. If it's necessary, I'll even crawl under (Mr Trump's) legs. What's the big deal?' he quipped.
Mr Lee, a former human rights lawyer, was sworn into office at 9am (10am in Singapore) on June 4, barely five hours after the final vote tally gave him a 49.42 per cent mandate. His closest rival, former labour minister Kim Moon-soo, garnered 41.15 per cent.
The snap election Mr Lee, 61, won was widely seen as a referendum of his disgraced predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol's failed self-coup of Dec 3, 2024.
Yoon was subsequently stripped of his powers by the country's Constitutional Court and is now undergoing trial on insurrection charges.
Mr Lee inherits a burning portfolio following six months of political chaos left by Yoon's short-lived martial law debacle.
The new President has acknowledged that beyond the uphill task of healing a fractured and wounded nation, a key priority for him would be to regain the trust of its biggest ally, the US, and to iron out urgent trade issues.
Data released on June 1 by the South Korean government have shown that the country's economy has started to slow down following Mr Trump's announcement of various tariffs since April 2 .
South Korean exports fell 1.3 per cent from a year earlier, with steel exports, in particular, falling by 12.4 per cent. South Korea was the fourth-largest exporter of steel to the US last year.
Amid the uncertainties, the Bank of Korea on May 29 slashed the country's economic growth forecast for 2025 to 0.8 per cent, from its previous estimate of 1.5 per cent.
The previous administration had begun talks with its Washington counterpart in seeking a full exemption from or reduction in the proposed 25 per cent reciprocal tariffs on South Korea, in addition to reduction in sectoral tariffs on steel, automobile and other imports. The previous government had repeatedly stressed the final push had to be done by the new administration from June 4.
Dr Victor Cha, who is Korea chair at the Washington-based think-tank Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), says the first contact between the two presidents is important, given how it has been 'six months where the Trump administration has been moving 100 miles per hour while South Korea's been stuck in neutral without a government'.
Speaking at a CSIS podcast on June 3 to dissect the election results, Dr Cha added that any major decisions on tariff negotiations are likely to be made by Mr Trump himself, which further necessitates a summit meeting between the two presidents.
Professor Leif-Eric Easley at Ewha Womans University shared a similar assessment, suggesting that Mr Lee and Mr Trump could bond over their 'political survivor' backgrounds, and move the South Korea-US alliance 'beyond threats of tariff hikes and troop reductions to urgently refocus on military deterrence, economic security and coordinated diplomacy'.
A recent Wall Street Journal report on May 22 about the US plans to reduce its military presence in South Korea had sparked fears about what it means for Washington's security commitments in the troubled Korean peninsula.
There had also been concerns that South Korea, under Mr Lee's liberal-leaning stewardship, might worsen matters if it pivots towards China at the expense of the South Korea-US alliance and the US-Japan-South Korea trilateral partnership.
Mr Lee had been perceived as 'pro-China' for his previous xie-xie gaffe where he had suggested in March 2024 that South Korea remain a neutral party in the cross-strait tensions between China and Taiwan.
In the run-up to the country's general election in 2024, in an attempt to disparage then President Yoon's tightening alliance with the US and Japan, which had invited criticism from China, Mr Lee had said that Seoul could avoid antagonising Beijing further, especially over Taiwan Strait tensions, by simply saying xie xie, or 'thanks' in Mandarin, to China and Taiwan.
But the new President has repeatedly sought to dispel such a notion.
In his inaugural address on June 4, Mr Lee emphasised that he would seek a 'pragmatic' approach to diplomacy, and 'turn the crisis of global economic and security shifts into opportunities to maximise national interests'.
He also pledged to strengthen the US-South Korea alliance, bolster the US-South Korea-Japan trilateral partnership, while improving relations with both China and North Korea, which he described as being in the 'worst state' because of the last administration.
Mr Lee has since appointed Mr Wi Sung-lac, a former diplomat well-versed in Russia and North Korea affairs, as his national security adviser.
Mr Wi, who is behind Mr Lee's 'pragmatic diplomacy' approach, spoke to foreign media at a briefing on May 28, where he gave the assurance that the South Korea-US alliance remains the 'cornerstone' of the President's diplomacy vision.
'Mr Lee aims to restore the trust for the alliance, which has been damaged by the unlawful martial law incident, and to deepen the ROK-US relations into a future-oriented strategic alliance,' he said, referring to the Republic of Korea, the official name of South Kore a.
Pointing out that the advancement of North Korea's nuclear and missile capabilities is something that cannot be neglected, Mr Wi said Mr Lee's government will also seek to 'strategically engage' China and Russia to cooperate on the stability of the Korean peninsula.
Dr Lee Seong-Hyon, a senior fellow at the Washington-based George H.W. Bush Foundation for US-China Relations, told The Straits Times that the new Lee administration's foreign policy directions bear watching.
'Today's North Korea differs from past iterations, as does China,' said Dr Lee.
'South Korea's domestic turmoil over the past six months may have created an inward focus that underestimates these seismic geopolitical shifts, so simply reverting to old foreign policy paradigms may prove inadequate when major powers are redrawing their grand strategies.'
Wendy Teo is The Straits Times' South Korea correspondent, based in Seoul. She covers issues concerning the two Koreas.
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