South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol suffered a damaging loss in elections, but it must not lead to more whiplash foreign policy, says Gearoid Reidy for Bloomberg Opinion.
South Korea n President Yoon Suk Yeol casts his early vote for 22nd parliamentary election, in Busan, South Korea , April 5, 2024. Yonhap via REUTERSare not a referendum on the foreign policy of President Yoon Suk Yeol . Indeed, foreign policy barely ranks on the list of voters concerns, which was dominated by familiar themes of inflation, housing and the economy.
Nonetheless, there will be concern in Washington, where President Joe Biden is hosting his counterpart from Tokyo, Fumio Kishida, in the first state visit by a Japanese leader for nine years. With its historic trilateral summit at Camp David last year between the US, Japan and South Korea, the Biden administration has given its full support for Yoon’s outreach to Japan, putting wartime grievances to one side to deepen its alliances with Tokyo.
At a time when the trilateral relationship needs to be deepened to counter not just China, but a North Korea that has deemed the South its"principal enemy", the prospect of a weak Yoon presidency is already concerning allies. While his domestic agenda will be hobbled, the president does not need parliamentary approval for foreign-policy initiatives - and must power ahead.
Lee, who narrowly lost to Yoon in 2024 and will be in a strong position to succeed him in 2027, has denounced the detente with Japan as"submissive diplomacy". Previously, he has dragged up old demands for wartime apologies of the sort that have bogged down relations for years.
Yoon Suk Yeol South Korea Election
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