New South Korean president promises closer ties with Kim Jong-un

Telegraph

03-06-2025

South Korea has elected a Left-wing president who has promised to strengthen ties with Kim Jong-un's regime in the North.
Lee Jae-myung, from the Left-leaning Democratic Party, won the snap vote on Tuesday, defeating Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party.
The election came after months of chaos following former president Yoon Suk Yeol's decision to impose martial law on the country in December 2024.
While Mr Lee's rags-to-riches story – rising from a factory worker to become president – has appealed to some in the country, many in South Korea see him as a divisive figure plagued by scandals, including with North Korea.
Mr Lee campaigned on promises of greater dialogue with the North, while Mr Kim remained critical of engagement and instead vowed to use nuclear weapons to counter Pyongyang if needed.
To engage with North Korea, Mr Lee said he would seek to restart communication via a hotline, which was previously used between the two countries before Pyongyang stopped responding in 2023.
A new report from the United States Department of Defense found that North Korea had reached its 'strongest strategic position' in decades, making South Korea's approach all the more critical.
However, Mr Lee's position is clouded by allegations that he has facilitated the transfer of funds to North Korea.
South Korean prosecutors allege that between 2019 and 2020, while he was governor of Gyeonggi Province, he directed the Ssangbangwool Group, a large South Korean conglomerate known for manufacturing undergarments, to transfer US$8 million (£5.9 million) to North Korea.
This comprised $5 million intended for a smart farm project and $3 million to facilitate a prospective visit by Mr Lee to Pyongyang.
His former deputy governor was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison for his role in the scheme, though Mr Lee has rejected any wrongdoing.
Mr Kim claimed that the money 'is now feeding the Kim family' in North Korea, referring to the dynasty that has ruled the isolated country since 1948.
Beyond his ties to the North, Mr Lee also faces controversy in relation to a number of criminal cases, which in 2024 even put his life at risk.
While speaking to journalists at an airport in the city of Busan, he was stabbed in the neck by a man who was pretending to ask for an autograph.
Since the incident, he has only ever campaigned behind bulletproof glass, wearing a bulletproof vest and protected by body guards.
Mr Kim mocked Mr Lee's alleged paranoia while on the campaign trail, calling him a coward and claiming that he should be 'in jail where it's the safest if he's so scared'.
Mr Lee is facing five criminal trials, three of which were put on hold until after the election.
The most high profile of the cases involves allegations that Mr Lee made false statements during his last presidential campaign in 2022 when he denied knowing Kim Moon-ki, a key figure in a prominent land development scandal.
It was later revealed that Mr Lee had taken an overseas business trip with Kim Moon-Ki, which prosecutors claim amounted to the offence of publicly announcing false facts.
In November 2024, he was convicted under the Public Official Election Act and given a one-year suspended prison sentence. He was cleared of the charges in March by an appeals court, but the ruling was overturned by South Korea's Supreme Court.
A final verdict has yet to come in, though previous reports said that if the conviction were to stand he would have been unseated as a lawmaker and barred from running in the presidential election.
Mr Lee was also indicted in 2023 on corruption charges in a $1 billion property development scandal during his time as mayor of Seongnam, a city about an hour south of Seoul. He allegedly colluded with private property developers to bring in hundreds of millions of pounds from the project, while costing the city 490 million won (£260,000).
He was also accused of receiving or demanding around 18 billion won in bribes for a professional football club that was strapped for cash.
Without Mr Yoon's declaration of martial law in December, it is unlikely that Lee would have become president.
But pitted against Mr Kim, who refused to distance himself from the impeached former president, the door was opened for Lee to win.
Dr Edward Howell, a North Korea specialist at the University of Oxford, told The Telegraph that Pyongyang would likely be pleased at the election result.
'I think what we might see with regard to inter-Korean ties is a much less hawkish approach in terms of sanctions, a much more pro-dialogue and pro-engagement approach.
'If you're North Korea, this shift in South Korean policy will be welcomed. The question now is if Lee Jae-myung offers an olive branch, will North Korea respond?'
He added that the new president 'does not prioritise deterring North Korea' and this is 'really problematic at a time of heightened threat from North Korea'.