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Just hours after winning the South Korean presidency, Lee Jae-myung pledged to “unite the people” in his inauguration speech on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Lee enters office at a time when the country is still grappling with deep divisions, which were further triggered after President Yoon Suk Yeol’s shock martial law declaration last December.<\/p>\n
“I will start with reviving the economy and healing the people,” he told an audience a the National Assembly. “Regardless of who you supported in this election… I will be the president of all the people.”<\/p>\n
Lee, a candidate of the liberal Democratic Party, was elected with nearly 50% of the vote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
He blamed the country’s political turmoil on “political factions with no desire to work for the lives of the people”.<\/p>\n
“I will work to unite the people,” he said, adding that he would “become a president who ends the politics of division.”<\/p>\n
But it’s not just domestic issues he has to contend with. Lee has urgent foreign challenges as well – such as navigating the US-Korea alliance under the new Trump administration, balancing its relations with China and dealing with its closest neighbour North Korea. <\/p>\n
Lee also pledged to build a “flexible, pragmatic government” and announced that an emergency economic task force would be “activated immediately”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n