Editorial | Balancing act awaits new South Korean leader

Yoon Suk-yeol’s election as president of South Korea ushers in a new balancing act in his country’s ties with China and the United States. The leader of the main conservative opposition People Power Party narrowly defeated his liberal rival Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea in the race to succeed President Moon Jae-in, who tilted foreign policy towards China.

In the election campaign Yoon, a former prosecutor, exploited discontent with Moon’s perceived strategic ambiguity amid growing anti-Chinese sentiment. That said, he has no experience in foreign relations.

It remains to be seen to what extent campaign rhetoric is borne out in the real world, in which the national interest has to be weighed against a complicated external situation. This is reflected in China’s conciliatory reaction to the election result, with a foreign ministry spokesman congratulating Yoon and noting that South Korea is an “inseparable neighbour”, and “important partner” and hoping for healthy and stable bilateral ties.

South Korea must balance economic ties with China with its traditional security relationship with the United States. Yoon has said a deeper US alliance should be the core of Seoul’s foreign policy and he promised to participate in the US-led Quad, which also includes Japan, India and Australia.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has denounced the Quad as an attempt to create an “Indo-Pacific Nato” to contain Beijing. Yoon will have to handle issues such as the Quad and the promised deployment of THAAD – a US anti-missile system also denounced by China – very carefully if he is to achieve his foreign policy goal of a working relationship with China based on mutual respect and cooperation.