New leader Lee Jae-myung pledges to ‘unite’ a divided country

Just hours after winning the South Korean presidency, Lee Jae-myung pledged to “unite the people” in his inauguration speech on Wednesday.

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.

“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.”

Lee, a candidate of the liberal Democratic Party, was elected with nearly 50% of the vote.

He blamed the country’s political turmoil on “political factions with no desire to work for the lives of the people”.

“I will work to unite the people,” he said, adding that he would “become a president who ends the politics of division.”

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.

Lee also pledged to build a “flexible, pragmatic government” and announced that an emergency economic task force would be “activated immediately”.