East Asia Compass

Five Challenges for South Korean President Lee Jae-Myung

20 Jun, 2025    ·   5891

Dr. Sandip Kumar Mishra outlines five domestic and foreign policy hurdles that confront the new administration




Lee Jae-myung became the 21st President of South Korea on 4 June 2025 after a tumultuous six months for South Korean politics, which began with the sudden announcement of emergency martial law by the previous President Yoon Suk-yeol on the night of 3 December 2024. Although martial law was withdrawn within six hours as the National Assembly rejected the decision, the process of President Yoon Suk-yeol’s impeachment and the election of a new leader were cumbersome. Once the Constitutional Court of South Korea approved the impeachment on 4 April 2025, the whole process of choosing a new leader was completed within two months.

The Democratic Party of South Korea, which enjoys a comfortable majority in the National Assembly, was swift in choosing its candidate for president, but the People’s Power Party (PPP) took longer to get it done. In post-martial law South Korea, the People’s Power Party hasn’t been able to decide if it should fully distance itself from Yoon Suk-yeol or not. The dilemma has created a gap between their formal pronouncements and their actual behaviour.

However, election results show that despite martial law, factionalism in the PPP, and the late announcement of the presidential candidate, PPP candidate Kim Moon-soo was able to get 41.15 per cent of the votes. This means that most of the support bases of the PPP remain loyal. The election results also show that South Korean men in their 20s and 30s are feeling discontented with the Democratic Party along with the older generation which generally supports the conservative party.

After assuming the president's post, Lee Jae-myung has talked about the need to unite a divided South Korean society. He has promised to communicate more with opposition party leaders and people, and has also promised greater cooperation and transparency in the making and implementation of policies. However, the task ahead is not easy. His pledges of constitutional reform and reforming the judiciary and the prosecutor's office as well as instituting a two four-year term limit on the presidency will be challenging. The Democratic Party, because of its comfortable majority in the National Assembly, will try to take up all these issues, leading to political contestation with the opposition PPP. Uniting the Korean people and political reform will be the first challenge for Lee Jae-myung.

The second challenge for Lee Jae-myung will be revitalising the sluggish economy. He said that he considers it the most important task ahead. South Korea’s growth rate in 2025 is projected to be 0.8 per cent. For several years, the country’s growth rate has been slow and the ‘citizen economy’ needs to be dealt with urgently. Lee has already created a task force to address it. It remains to be seen how he will bring back economic vitality to South Korea’s export-led economy when many regions of the world are facing military conflict.

The third big challenge for Lee Jae-myung will be to determine how to engage with China in the economic domain while moving closer to South Korea’s military ally, the US. With the US, Lee Jae-myung has to resolve tariff issues that are looming large. He also has to convince Trump to maintain the status quo in cost-sharing for American soldiers stationed in South Korea. The US may demand more active participation from South Korea in areas of contestation with China and Russia. Lee Jae-myung may do so, but he will likely be less loud than his predecessor.

The fourth challenge for Lee Jae-myung will be to determine his approach towards North Korea. His party and he have been in favour of engagement with North Korea, but at present North Korea doesn’t appear keen. North Korea has a more sophisticated missile and nuclear inventory than in the past, is relatively less isolated after the mutual defence agreement with Russia last year, has also officially abandoned the goal of unification, and designated South Korea as a “hostile state.” Immediately after coming to power, Lee put a stop to the broadcasting of propaganda loudspeakers at the border and also wanted to stop sending propaganda balloons to North Korea. North Korea responded positively to his moves by also stopping North Korean loudspeakers, but moving forward would be a test of the president’s resolve, tactfulness, and sincerity.

The fifth challenge will be to maintain and improve relations with Japan. Usually, under progressive presidents in South Korea, except Kim Dae-jung, South Korea’s relations with Japan have deteriorated. Lee Jae-myung has to show he is a leader like Kim Dae-jung, who can build good relations with Japan as well as with other regional countries.

In brief, the new president of South Korea faces formidable domestic and foreign policy challenges. That said, Lee Jae-myung is considered a pragmatic, sharp, decisive, and hardworking leader, and he will certainly try to deal with these challenges positively.


Dr. Sandip Kumar Mishra is Professor at the Centre for East Asian Studies in SIS, JNU, and Distinguished Fellow, IPCS.

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