South Korea Elects New President: Who Is Yoon Suk-yeol and What Are His Proposed Policies?

Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservative former prosecutor, is on track to become South Korea's next president after beating his liberal opponent in the country's presidential election on Thursday.

South Korea's New President: Yoon Suk-yeol

By a razor-thin margin, the 61-year-old defeated Lee Jae-myung. The results were the closest in the country's democratic history, with the final vote total split by less than 1%.

These elections were highly contentious and marred by scandals, but they also had a high turnout, with almost 77 percent of the eligible people voting. According to political commentators, these elections were the most unpleasant in terms of the way they were fought, with a greater emphasis on mudslinging and personal verbal assaults than on criticism of programs and goals.

President Moon Jae-in appointed Yoon as the prosecutor general of South Korea from 2019 to 2021. He also played a key part in former President Park Geun-Hye as South Korea's lead prosecutor. His participation into the contest was late last year, and he only became well-known during the political campaigns, according to Indian Express.

Foreign Policy Under Newly Elected President

Yoon Suk-yeol, in comparison to President Moon Jae-in, is more hawkish when it comes to foreign policy. Unlike President Moon, Yoon Suk-yeol favors tough sanctions on North Korea, which are by US foreign policy, even though Washington is Seoul's most important diplomatic friend.

Yoon Suk-yeol has even advocated for the creation of military technologies capable of preemptive attacks against North Korea. Moon Jae-policy's toward North Korea had been deemed a "total failure" by Yoon.

Yoon added in a written interview with The Washington Post that he thought it was "regrettable" that South Korea lagged behind Western nations, Japan, and Australia in imposing economic penalties in response to the Russian invasion. "do our best to meet the expectations and demands of the international society," he stated.

When Moon met with President Biden last year, the two leaders stated their aims for widening the scope of the US-South Korean partnership beyond North Korean concerns, which many observers welcomed as a positive step toward South Korea being more powerful in the world stage.

Now it will be up to Yoon to put those pledges into concrete policy, according to Miyeon Oh, head of the Atlantic Council's Asia Security Initiative in Washington, according to Washington Post via MSN.

Yoon Suk-yeol Vows to Take a Harder Line with North Korea

Resuming it is one of several engagement attempts that look to be on pause, for the time being, owing to Pyongyang's more aggressive measures and Yoon's pledge to take a tougher stance towards the North. Yoon's triumph might be the final nail in the coffin for outgoing President Moon Jae-program in's of dialogue with North Korea, which stalled throughout his term.

Yoon, a former prosecutor with little experience in international affairs, has promised a tough military posture and stated that pre-emptive attacks may be the only way to stop North Korea's new hypersonic missiles from being launched.

The team of the president-elect said he will try to reopen discussions with North Korea, but only if it takes tangible steps to denuclearize. They also want to improve military deterrence, notably by boosting ties with the United States.

Regardless matter who inhabits the South's presidential Blue House during Yoon's administration, analysts and campaign aides believe North Korea already looks set on a road toward escalation, at least in the short term, Japan Times reported.