South Korea’s president-elect wants tougher stance on North

SOUTH Korea’s president-elect Yoon Suk Yeol says he will solidify an alliance with the United States, build up a powerful military and sternly cope with North Korean provocations.

His pledge came hours after he won the country’s hard-fought election to become its next leader.

Mr Yoon, whose single five-year term is to begin in May, said during his campaigning he would make a boosted alliance with the United States the centre of his foreign policy.

He has accused outgoing liberal President Moon Jae-in of tilting toward Pyongyang and Beijing and away from Washington.

He’s also stressed the need to recognise the strategic importance of repairing ties with Tokyo, despite recent bilateral historical disputes.

Some experts say a Yoon government will likely be able to reinforce ties with Washington and improve relations with Tokyo, but can’t really avoid frictions with Pyongyang and Beijing.

“I’ll rebuild the South Korea-us alliance. I’ll (make) it a strategic comprehensive alliance while sharing key values like a liberal democracy, a market economy and human rights,” Mr Yoon told a televised news conference.

“I’ll establish a strong military capacity to deter any provocation completely,” Mr Yoon said. “I’ll firmly deal with illicit, unreasonable behaviour by North Korea in a principled manner, though I’ll always leave door for South-north talks open.”

After his election win, he spoke with US President Joe Biden on the phone. According to a White House statement, Mr Biden congratulated Mr Yoon on the election and emphasised the US commitment to the defence of South Korea. The statement said the two also committed to maintain close coordination on addressing the threats posed by North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

North Korea has not made any comments on Mr Yoon’s election. In recent weeks, it’s launched a spate of sophisticated, nuclear-capable ballistic missiles in what experts call an attempt to modernise its weapons arsenal and pressure the Biden administration to making concessions on sanctions relief amid stalled diplomacy.

Last week, North Korea said it tested cameras and other systems needed to operate a spy satellite. Its state media cited leader Kim Jong Un as saying his country needs reconnaissance satellites to monitor “the aggression troops of the US imperialism and its vassal forces”.

On Japan, Mr Yoon said that Seoul and Tokyo should focus on building future-oriented ties. “The focus in South Korea-japan relations should be finding future paths that would benefit the people of both countries,” he said.

The two countries are both key US allies and closely linked to each other economically and culturally, but their relations sank to post-war lows during Mr Moon’s presidency over disputes related to Japan’s 1910-45 colonisation of the Korean Peninsula.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed a desire to communicate with Mr Yoon to bring back good ties. But he still said Tokyo will stick to its position that all compensation issues have been settled by a 1965 bilateral treaty.

Mr Yoon, who ran on the ticket of the main opposition People Power Party, had previously served as Mr Moon’s prosecutor general. But he joined the opposition last year after high-profile infighting over his investigations on some of Mr Moon’s allies.

Wednesday’s election was largely a two-way showdown between Mr Yoon and liberal ruling party candidate Lee Jae-myung. The two spent months mocking and demonising each other in one of the most bitter political campaigns in recent memory, aggravating the country’s already severe domestic division.

Mr Lee and his allies attacked Mr Yoon over his lack of experience in foreign policy and other major state affairs.

They said Mr Yoon’s hardline stance on North Korea would unnecessarily provoke the North, and picking a side between Washington and Beijing would pose greater security threats to Seoul. Mr Yoon has accused the Moon administration of being “submissive” to Pyongyang and Beijing at the expense of Seoul’s 70-year alliance with Washington.

Mr Yoon’s razor-thin victory against Mr Lee was partly seen as a referendum on the liberal government, whose popularity waned in recent years over failures to deal with stark economic inequalities, decaying job markets and soaring house prices that paint bleak financial futures for many people in their 20s and 30s.

I’ll establish a strong military capacity to deter any provocation