(SEOUL) South Korea on Tuesday swore in its new president Yoon Suk-yeol, who started his five-year term by calling on North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal, as relations between the two neighbors go through a period strong tensions.
Posted yesterday at 11:04 p.m.
The 61-year-old conservative takes office as increasingly belligerent North Korea has conducted a record 15 missile tests since January, including two last week. Seoul and Washington also suspect it of wanting to resume its nuclear tests soon.
Tuesday at midnight, he attended his first briefing as head of the armed forces with the highest officials of the general staff, in the bunker located under the presidential palace.
After being sworn in in a giant ceremony at the National Assembly in Seoul, Mr. Yoon, in his inauguration speech, called on North Korea to get rid of its nuclear arsenal, which he said posed a threat to global security.
He said that if Pyongyang “genuinely embarks on a process of complete denuclearization”, it will be ready to present a “bold plan” to revive the North Korean economy.
“Today we face multiple crises,” he added, citing the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain issues and global conflicts which he said “cast a big shadow on us “.
Elected narrowly in March, Mr. Yoon, a former prosecutor new to politics, comes to power with a popularity rate of barely 41%, one of the lowest in the history of South Korean democracy for a start. tenure, according to a recent Gallup poll.
“Crude Boy”
The president promised a tougher foreign policy for his country, the 10and world economy, after the failed attempts at rapprochement with the North that marked the mandate of his predecessor Moon Jae-in.
In the wake of his electoral victory, Mr. Yoon pledged to “deal severely” with the threat posed by the Kim Jong-un regime.
“But the door to dialogue is always open,” he told his supporters.
During his election campaign, he had however called Kim Jong-un a “rude boy”, throwing to voters: “If you give me a chance, I will teach him good manners”.
Mr. Yoon also called for a stronger relationship with his American ally, and spoke with President Joe Biden, pledging in particular to maintain “close coordination” on North Korea.
Mr. Biden is expected in South Korea at the end of May.
Domestically, growing public frustration with Moon Jae-in’s liberal government appears to have been behind his political opponent’s rise to power.
Mr. Moon had won the 2017 presidential election by promising to implement a program based on equal opportunities, after the dismissal of his predecessor Park Geun-hye, mired in a corruption scandal.
But he was subsequently accused of laxity vis-à-vis his own collaborators found guilty of having received bribes. He has also been criticized for his economic policies, accused of having widened inequalities instead of reducing them.
Yoon Suk-yeol is expected to propose a set of reforms radically different from those of his predecessor.
About 40,000 people were invited to the investiture ceremony, which will be by far the most expensive ever organized with a budget of 3.3 billion won (2.5 million euros). The chosen slogan is: “Once again, the Republic of Korea!” A new country of the people”.
The American delegation is led by Douglas Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris. Japan and China, with whom Mr. Yoon intends to ease the sometimes stormy relations, sent high-level representatives to the ceremony.