South Korea election: New president Lee Jae-myung pledges to revive democracy and economy
South Korea's
new liberal president Lee Jae-myung pledged on Wednesday to raise the country from what he described as the near destruction caused by a martial law attempt and revive a struggling economy facing global protectionism.
Lee's decisive victory in Tuesday's snap election stands to usher in a sea change in Asia's fourth-largest economy, after backlash against a botched attempt at military rule brought down
Yoon Suk Yeol
three years into his presidency.
He faces what could be the most daunting set of challenges for a South Korean leader in nearly three decades, ranging from healing a country deeply scarred by the martial law attempt to tackling unpredictable protectionist moves by the
United States
, a major trading partner and a security ally.
'A Lee Jae-myung government will be a pragmatic pro-market government,' he said after taking the oath of office at parliament, a location where six months ago he jumped over the perimeter wall to enter the chamber and avoid martial law troops barricading it to vote down the decree.
READ MORE
He promised deregulation to spur innovation and growth in business and pledged to reopen dialogue with
North Korea
while maintaining a strong security alliance with the US.
'It is better to win without fighting than to win in a fight, and peace with no need to fight is the best security,' he said, referring to his country's often violent ties with rival North Korea.
Lee was officially confirmed earlier as president by the National Election Commission and immediately assumed the powers of the presidency and commander in chief, speaking with the top military leader to receive a report on defence posture.
With all the ballots counted, Lee won 49.42 per cent of the nearly 35 million votes cast while conservative rival Kim Moon-soo took 41.15 per cent in the polls, the highest turnout for a presidential election since 1997, official data showed.
Lee has said he would address urgent economic challenges facing the country on the first day in office with a focus on the
cost-of-living
concerns affecting middle and low-income families and the struggles of small business owners.
'With democracy alive, I hope the president will revive the economy, and have consideration for underprivileged citizens and small business owners,' said Kim Eun-kyung (58), a Seoul resident.
[
Lee Jae-myung: The man set to take over South Korea's turbulent democracy
Opens in new window
]
The new president also faces a deadline set by the White House on negotiating import duties that Washington has blamed for a large trade imbalance between the countries.
South Korean stocks rallied on Wednesday, with the benchmark KOSPI rising more than 2 per cent to a 10-month high, with the financial sector leading the gain on expectations of market reform by Lee. Renewable energy stocks also rose. Lee has pledged a shift to a greener energy mix.
In a bid to fill a long-running power vacuum, Lee nominated Kim Min-seok, a four-time lawmaker, as his prime minister on Tuesday.
Kim made waves when he predicted in August last year that Yoon may declare martial law, roughly three months before Yoon's short-lived decree to impose martial law.
The government under a caretaker acting president had made little progress in trying to assuage crushing
tariffs
announced by US president
Donald Trump
that would hit some of the country's major industries, including autos and steel.
'President Lee will find himself with little to no time to spare before tackling the most important task of his early presidency: reaching a deal with Trump,' the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said.
US secretary of state
Marco Rubio
congratulated Lee on his election win and said the countries 'share an ironclad commitment' to their alliance grounded on shared values and deep economic ties.
The White House said the election of Lee was 'free and fair' but the US remained concerned and opposed to Chinese interference and influence in democracies around the world, according to a White House official.
Lee has expressed more conciliatory plans for ties with China and North Korea, in particular singling out the importance of China as a major trading partner while indicating reluctance to take a firm stance on security tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
Still, Lee has pledged to continue Yoon's engagement with Japan and said the alliance with the US is the backbone of South Korea's global diplomacy. – Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
13 hours ago
- Irish Times
US economy adds 139,000 jobs in May as labour market weakens
The US economy added 139,000 jobs in May, beating expectations but still signalling that the labour market in the world's biggest economy is weakening. Friday's figure from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was below the downwardly revised 147,000 posts added in April but above the 126,000 predicted by economists polled by Bloomberg. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2 per cent. The number of jobs in the federal government continued to slide amid a cost-cutting effort by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, led until last week by billionaire Elon Musk. READ MORE Treasury bond yields edged higher after the data publication as traders marginally cut back expectations of interest rate cuts this year. Futures markets now expect two further reductions, with a small chance that the US Federal Reserve could move just once in the remainder of 2025. On Tuesday, after separate data pointed to lacklustre private-sector hiring, US president Donald Trump lashed out at Fed chair Jay Powell, calling on him to lower interest rates. S&P 500 futures extended gains, trading 0.8 per cent higher. The OECD warned this week that the global economy was heading into its weakest period of growth since the Covid-19 pandemic as Trump's trade war weighs on the world's top economies. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited
Irish Times
21 hours ago
- Irish Times
Epsom Derby is the original, but sadly it is not the best any more
The Epsom Derby is the original. But sad to say it's not the best any more. When it comes to mile-and-a-half Derby races on grass, the most commercially relevant of them all is already done and dusted for this year. Last Sunday's Tokyo Yushun, the Japanese Derby, was won by Croix Du Nord. A champion two-year-old, Croix Du Nord won what is unquestionably Japanese racing's most coveted prize. 【🇯🇵 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) (G1), Tokyo, 2400m, 3yo No Geldings, approx US$ 4.61m】 Winner: Croix du Nord(JPN) J: Yuichi Kitamura T: Takashi Saito Sire: Kitasan Black Dam: Rising Cross — JRA World Racing (@JRA_WorldRacing) Post-race euphoria underlined the prevailing sentiment of this being the pinnacle of the sport in what is perhaps the strongest and most vibrant racing nation of all. The same kind of comments will be dutifully trotted out after Saturday's Derby at Epsom. They'll sound rote in comparison. The Epsom Derby is trading on past glories. The currency of Federico Tesio's line about the thoroughbred existing because of the Epsom winning post has faded in the face of modern commercial bloodstock realities. In stark, bottom-line terms, winning the Derby has become a double-edged sword. Its prestige is rooted in tradition, but where's the future in that? READ MORE As Saturday is the 246th Derby there's probably little surprise about it looking a bit tired. The crowd for the Tokyo classic was capped at 80,000. About 25,000 will be in Epsom, far removed from historic tales of London decamping to the Hill for the day. The Tokyo Yushun was worth almost €4 million in prize money, more than double its English counterpart. But it is the discrepancy between the two Derby prizes in terms of their primary purposes that is stark. Champions still win at Epsom. City Of Troy a year ago was the best of his generation. A decade ago, Golden Horn proved himself an outstanding racehorse. But in the identification of potential top stallions, Blue Riband glory at Epsom is all but a black mark. Proven mile-and-a-half ability is prized in Japan's racing and breeding industries. The class to carry speed over a distance is the ultimate. The 2023 world champion Equinox is a prime example. Croix Du Nord is all but priceless now, his status as an elite stallion prospect assured. The commercial imperative around tomorrow's winner will be very different. Almost inevitably the first instinct for those involved in any Epsom Derby winner is to prove the horse is just as good, if not better, at a shorter trip. A mile-and-a-half has become associated with stamina and that's a financial mood killer in the breeding shed. Adam Kirby riding Adayar home in 2021 to win the Derby at Epsom. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty The 2021 Derby winner Adayar was so commercially dubious in Europe he was immediately packed off to stud in Japan. It was a well-trodden route in the past when Japan's industry was growing. Now the Japanese are mostly fine with their own produce. Serpentine the year before ended up gelded, the first Derby winner in a century to face such a fate. Anthony Van Dyck (2019) wound up being fatally injured in the Melbourne Cup. Last year, Darley moved its 2018 hero Masar to a National Hunt stud in Ireland. The vastly less lucrative business of serving jumps mares is also what Wings Of Eagles (2017), Harzand (2016) and Golden Horn are now doing. In the stallion business, middle-distance talent too often turns into sales-ring poison. The last Epsom Derby hero to prove himself a proper top-notch stallion on the flat is Camelot (2012). The instinct for many is to blame Coolmore Stud's commercial instincts for such a situation. The Irish-based operation does exert a massive hold on the global bloodstock game. But it ignores how John Magnier's support for the Derby has been crucial over the last two decades. Without it, the race's relevance would be on an even slippier slope than it is. That Coolmore's prepotent sire Galileo was a proper mile-and-half racehorse in his day seems to have gone over a lot of heads. So, too, does the impact of so much breeding for what often turns out to be cheap speed. The nature of the programme that made Europe the focal point for turf racing worldwide has been undermined. Looking back at Golden Horn's post-Epsom racing career, his trainer John Gosden said recently: 'Of course what do we all do now; we have to go straight to the Eclipse to prove they're not mile-and-a-half horses. And yet the Japanese, they don't mind. Deep Impact ran over two miles. What is this speed, speed, speed with us? We're getting worse than the Americans.' Deep Impact, Japan's most famous racehorse, won the Tokyo Yushun 20 years ago on route to Triple Crown glory. It included Japan's St Leger over almost two miles. In 2020 his son Contrail did the same. It underlines how skewed middle-distance priorities are here; perhaps also how it's no coincidence about the best in Japan increasingly being the best in the world. It's 20 years, too, since the French Derby was dropped in distance to reflect modern European breeding realities. Last Sunday, hours after Croix Du Nord, Aidan O'Brien won it with Camille Pissarro. He said afterwards: 'It's a very important race, and it makes him a very important horse.' Chantilly is a long way from Tokyo. But the prevailing Derby sentiment was similar. A similar narrative will be dutifully spun about tomorrow's Derby. But those words will sound hollow. Short-sighted attitudes to middle distance breeding are having their long-term impact. The odds are the mile and a half Derby winner that will be instrumental in developing a sport's flourishing future is tucked up in his box 10,000 kms away from Epsom. Somethin g for the Weekend It will be the biggest Derby field since 2003 which reflects how open it looks. DAMYSUS (3.30) was at the back of a slowly run Dante and did well to finish second to Pride Of Arras. He looked inexperienced at York, but was the last one off the bridle. Reported progress since can see him in the mix. Gavin Cromwell sends FIERY LUCY (3.10) for Listed contest in Musselburgh on Saturday and the three-year-old can progress for her comeback run at Leopardstown to beat last year's winner, Jabaara.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Irish Times
Irish early risers try to help get South Korea's suicide rate down
It was shortly after 4am on Saturday and Yeouido Park near Seoul 's financial district was dark, a little chilly and mostly deserted. But on a plaza just inside the park stood a large group of adults, some of them accompanied by children and dogs, chatting and laughing as if they were at a party. These were members of Seoul's Irish community and their friends and they were about to set off on a walk through the park, emerging into the neighbourhood nearby as dawn was breaking. Organised by the Irish Association of Korea, Solas is an annual event similar to Ireland's Darkness Into Light, which aims to highlight positive mental health and wellbeing. 'There is really strong scientific evidence that the single most important thing you can do if you are struggling with your mental health is to talk about it and to be open about it,' Ireland's ambassador to South Korea Michelle Winthrop told the crowd. 'We, as a society, in Ireland, in Korea, everywhere, just need to get a bit better at speaking up. We need to get a bit more comfortable at listening if somebody is expressing some concerns. And the most important thing, really is to beat the stigma. So we just keep repeating that message: it's okay not to be okay,' she said. READ MORE South Korea has the fourth highest suicide rate in the world and the highest within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). While the global suicide rate is declining, it has been rising in South Korea, with men twice as likely to take their own lives as women and with the highest rate among older people. The overall suicide rate is 25 deaths per 100,000 people but among those in their 80s it is nearly 70 per 100,000 and nearly 50 for those in their 40s and 50s. But the biggest cause of concern is the rising number of young people taking their own lives, with the number of primary and secondary students who die by suicide each year doubling in less than a decade. If one of the purposes of Solas is to raise awareness, the other is to raise money and this year's beneficiary was the Hospitaller Order of St John of God. Five St John of God brothers came from Ireland to establish the order in Korea in 1958, setting up a small clinic in Gwangju near the southern tip of the peninsula. Their services have expanded since then to include two centres in Seoul and apart from general medicine, they offer psychiatric services, programmes for alcohol and other substance abuse, and various counselling services. They offer counselling to families of people who have died by suicide, many of whom feel uncomfortable sharing the burden of their grief with friends and colleagues. 'This is one of the problems. It's not talked about openly. I suppose Ireland also, some years ago, it wasn't spoken about either. It's at that stage in Korea,' said Brother John Conway, a native of Greystones, Co Wicklow who moved to Korea with the St John of God order 42 years ago. 'The area of alcoholism is another. When I first came to Korea and we opened the very first alcohol treatment centre in Gwangju, we were almost told we were wasting our time. And then suddenly there was a huge interest in it, mainly due to Korean dramas that brought the problem out. And now it's all over the country, AA groups and everything. It's the same thing.' The order's alcohol treatment centres in Korea are based on the model of their hospital in Stillorgan but they adapt their services to take account of local sensibilities. The psychiatric hospital in Korea is called a Centre for Living and the nursing staff, who don't wear uniforms, refer to the patients as guests and never address them by their first names. Nana Kim, one of the Koreans on the Solas walk, was part of a group from the Seoul Gaels, the city's GAA club where she is an enthusiastic footballer. She said that Korea's competitive culture, where young people are constantly judging and comparing themselves to one another, often compounded mental health issues. [ Ask the experts: why are suicide rates reaching 20-year lows in Ireland? Opens in new window ] 'Ten years ago, people used to think that mental health is a kind of disease. So if you saw a counsellor you wouldn't tell anyone. But it's a more common thing now and they talk about it in the media too,' she said. 'So it's getting better, but I think we still need more be open for those kind of things. It's like everyone is thinking, I have to be happy. But you don't. You can't be happy every day.'
