S. Korean leader takes unity step

President-elect wary of leaning on Washington

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s left-leaning new president, vowing to unite a nation bruised by a historic corruption scandal, takes power as North Korea flexes its nuclear muscles and Washington sends mixed signals over rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The landslide election win by Moon Jae-in, who favors talks with North Korea and is wary of too much dependence on Washington, throws a new element of uncertainty into the Trump administration’s dealings with North Korea’s isolated and mercurial leader, Kim Jong Un.

Moon, a lawyer and former presidential aide representing the center-left Democratic Party, pledged in a midnight victory speech to restore the public’s faith in the country after a tumultuous six months that saw the ouster and arrest of the former president, Park Geun-hye.

Under the circumstances, with Park jailed and the prime minister serving as a caretaker, Moon was expected to take office almost immediately. No elaborate inauguration is scheduled.

“My fellow Koreans, I will not forget what you have asked for as a nation, as a people,” Moon told a large crowd in a central square where protesters have gathered in recent months.

“I will work toward putting our country back on its feet and helping all of you realize your dreams, as Koreans.”

The White House, in a brief statement, offered congratulations and expressed hopes for a continuing close partnership with the government in Seoul.

Moon’s lopsided victory — he received 41 percent of the vote in a field of more than a dozen candidates, nearly double that of second-place finisher Hong Joon-pyo — was widely expected by policymakers in Washington and elsewhere, muting its immediate impact.

But going forward, the relationship Moon forges with Trump will be heavily influenced by the White House response to North Korea’s nuclear testing program and the communist government’s efforts to build an intercontinental ballistic missile that could deliver a warhead to U.S. shores, analysts said.

In recent weeks, Trump has engaged in both heavyhanded saber-rattling and seeming outreach toward North Korea’s leader — sometimes within a span of days.

Some analysts pointed to Trump’s declaration last week that he would be “honored” to meet with Kim under the right circumstances as perhaps dovetailing with Moon’s own stated willingness to engage the North.

Trump also warned North Korea, however, that bellicose acts would carry the potential for “major, major conflict.”

Last month, Trump said he had dispatched a powerful “armada” — a Navy aircraft carrier task force — to sail toward the Korean peninsula as Washington was strongly cautioning Kim not to conduct a sixth nuclear test.

Days later, the Navy acknowledged that the warships were going in the opposite direction at the time to engage in exercises with Australia’s navy. The U.S. task force, led by the Carl Vinson, ultimately steamed north to within range of Korea.

Moon has questioned the decision by the previous South Korean administration and U.S. officials to install the missile defense system known as THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, and called for a review of the decision to make it operational.

Some analysts said Trump’s seeming changeability added greater unpredictability to the standoff with North Korea, and U.S. relations with Seoul, than did the results of Tuesday’s election in South Korea.

Trump “has made the U.S. into this big question mark as an alliance partner,” said Katharine Moon, a political science professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and a non-resident senior fellow at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution.

In the past, she said, even serious differences between U.S. and South Korean leaders — and strong antiAmerican sentiment among parts of South Korean society — did not pose a significant threat to the alliance.

“Moon has said he wants South Korea to follow a more independent path visa-vis the United States, but that does not mean reneging on the alliance,” she said.

South Korea has been in political limbo for months. Park was impeached last December in a corruption scandal and removed from office in March.

Given the domestic turmoil, Moon is likely to move swiftly to try to establish Seoul’s place as a decisionmaking partner to Washington when it comes to dealing with North Korea, analysts said.

Trump is expected to visit Asia later this year, but the White House has not yet said if he will visit Seoul.

JEAN CHUNG/GETTY President-elect Moon Jae-in greets supporters in Seoul after his victory was confirmed.