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Tag Archives: Yoon
South Korea’s Yoon warns of ending military pact after North drone intrusion
SEOUL, Jan 4 (Reuters) – South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Wednesday he would consider suspending a 2018 inter-Korean military pact if the North violates its airspace again, his office said, amid tension over a recent intrusion by North Korean drones.
Yoon made the comment after being briefed on countermeasures to North Korean drones that crossed into the South last week, calling for building an “overwhelming response capability that goes beyond proportional levels,” according to his press secretary, Kim Eun-hye.
“During the meeting, he instructed the national security office to consider suspending the validity of the military agreement if North Korea stages another provocation invading our territory,” Kim told a briefing.
The 2018 deal, sealed on the sidelines of a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, calls for ceasing “all hostile acts”, creating a no-fly zone around the border, and removing landmines and guard posts within the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone. The government has not said how many mines and posts were removed, citing security concerns.
Abandoning the pact could mean the return of the guard posts, live-fire drills in the former no-fly zone and propaganda broadcasts across the border – all of which drew angry responses from Pyongyang before the pact.
Inter-Korean relations have been testy for decades but have grown even more tense since Yoon took office in May pledging a tougher line against Pyongyang.
During the election campaign last year, Yoon said Pyongyang had repeatedly breached the agreement with missile launches and warned he might scrap it. He said after taking office that the pact’s fate hinges on the North’s actions.
Yoon has criticised the military’s handling of the drone incident, in part blaming the previous administration’s reliance on the 2018 pact.
He has urged the military to stand ready to retaliate, even if that means “risking escalation.”
Yoon ordered the defence minister to launch a comprehensive drone unit that performs multi-purpose missions, including surveillance, reconnaissance and electronic warfare, and to set up a system to mass-produce small drones that are difficult to detect within the year, Kim said.
“He also called for accelerating the development of stealthy drones this year and quickly establishing a drone killer system,” she said.
South Korea’s army operated two drone squadrons within its Ground Operations Command since 2018, but they were primarily designed to prepare for future warfare.
The defence ministry has said it plans to launch another unit focusing on surveillance and reconnaissance functions, especially targeting smaller drones.
“The upcoming unit would carry entirely different tasks, conducting operations in various areas,” Defence Minister Lee Jong-sup told parliament last week.
To boost its anti-drone capability, the ministry announced plans last week it would spend 560 billion won ($440 million) over the next five years on technology such as airborne laser weapons and signal jammers.
($1 = 1,273.9000 won)
Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Tom Hogue and Gerry Doyle
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Yoon says South Korea, U.S. discussing exercises using nuclear assets
SEOUL, Jan 2 (Reuters) – South Korea and the United States are discussing possible joint planning and exercises using U.S. nuclear assets in the face of North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threats, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said in a newspaper interview.
The Chosun Ilbo newspaper quoted Yoon as saying the joint planning and exercises would be aimed at a more effective implementation of the U.S. “extended deterrence.”
The term means the ability of the U.S. military, particularly its nuclear forces, to deter attacks on U.S. allies.
“The nuclear weapons belong to the United States, but planning, information sharing, exercises and training should be jointly conducted by South Korea and the United States,” Yoon said, adding Washington is also “quite positive” about the idea.
Yoon’s remarks come a day after North Korean state media reported that its leader Kim Jong Un called for developing new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and an “exponential increase” of the country’s nuclear arsenal to counter U.S.-led threats amid flaring tension between the rival Koreas.
The North’s race to advance its nuclear and missile programmes has renewed debate over South Korea’s own nuclear armaments, but Yoon said maintaining the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons remained important.
At a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party last week, Kim said South Korea has now become the North’s “undoubted enemy” and rolled out new military goals, hinting at another year of intensive weapons tests and tension.
Inter-Korean ties have long been testy but have been even more frayed since Yoon took office in May.
On Sunday, North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile off its east coast, in a rare late-night, New Year’s Day weapons test, following three ballistic missiles launched on Saturday, capping a year marked by a record number of missile tests.
Yoon’s comments on the nuclear exercises are the latest demonstration of his tough stance on North Korea. He urged the military to prepare for a war with “overwhelming” capability following North Korean drones crossing into the South last week.
Analysts say the tensions could worsen.
“This year could be a year of crisis with military tension on the Korean peninsula going beyond what it was like in 2017,” said Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, referring to the days of the “fire and fury” under the Trump administration.
“North Korea’s hardline stance…and aggressive weapons development when met with South Korea-U.S. joint exercises and proportional response could raise the tension in a flash, and we cannot rule out what’s similar to a regional conflict when the two sides have a misunderstanding of the situation,” Hong said.
Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi, Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
South Korea’s Yoon prepares to widen back-to-work order amid strike
SEOUL (Reuters) — South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Sunday ordered preparations for widening a back-to-work order beyond the cement industry amid a prolonged truckers’ strike.
Thousands of South Korean truckers have been on strike for more than 10 days, with negotiators for the government and unions making no progress on disagreements over minimum pay rules.
Yoon, a conservative, on Tuesday invoked a “start work” order, the first in the country’s history, on 2,500 drivers in the cement industry, requiring them to return to the road or face penalties.
On Sunday Yoon called on government ministers to make preparations to issue a return-to-work order on such sectors as oil refining and steelmaking, where additional damage is expected, spokesperson Lee Jae-myoung said in a statement.
Yoon called for punishment of those violating laws during the strike, ordering ministers to take action to minimize damage, such as employing alternative drivers, military personnel and military equipment.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, an umbrella group, is planning a general strike for Tuesday.
“I cannot but regard this planned strike as a politically motivated action, rather than one aimed at representing the workers’ rights,” Yoon said, according to Lee, signaling a potentially harsh reaction from the government.
“Holding the people’s living and national economy hostage at this time of economic difficulty makes the survival of weak, unorganized workers harder and deprives future generations and the general public of their future jobs,” Yoon said.
The strikes have disrupted South Korea’s supply chain, and cost 1.6 trillion won ($1.2 billion) in lost shipments over the first seven days, the industry ministry said on Thursday.
The government has said it would not expand a minimum pay system for truckers beyond a further three years. The union says it should be permanent and wider in scope.
Thousands demonstrated in downtown Seoul on Saturday in support of the truckers’ demands.
Exclusive: South Korea’s Yoon warns of unprecedented response to North Korea nuclear test, calls on China to do more
SEOUL, Nov 29 (Reuters) – South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol warned of an unprecedented joint response with allies if North Korea goes ahead with a nuclear test, and urged China to help dissuade the North from pursuing banned development of nuclear weapons and missiles.
In a wide-ranging interview with Reuters on Monday, Yoon called on China, North Korea’s closest ally, to fulfil its responsibilities as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. He said not doing so would lead to an influx of military assets to the region.
“What is sure is that China has the capability to influence North Korea, and China has the responsibility to engage in the process,” Yoon said in his office. It was up to Beijing to decide whether it would exert that influence for peace and stability, he added.
North Korea’s actions were leading to increased defence spending in countries around the region, including Japan, and more deployment of U.S. warplanes and ships, Yoon noted.
It is in China’s interest to make its “best efforts” to induce North Korea to denuclearise, he said.
When asked what South Korea and its allies, the United States and Japan, would do if North Korea conducts a new nuclear test, Yoon said the response “will be something that has not been seen before”, but declined to elaborate what that would entail.
“It would be extremely unwise for North Korea to conduct a seventh nuclear test,” he told Reuters.
Amid a record year for missile tests, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said this week his country intends to have the world’s most powerful nuclear force. South Korean and U.S. officials say Pyongyang may be preparing to resume testing nuclear weapons for the first time since 2017.
North Korea’s tests overshadowed multiple gatherings this month of international leaders, including the Group of 20 conference in Bali, where Yoon pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping to do more to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations. Xi urged Seoul to improve relations with Pyongyang.
Ahead of the G20, U.S. President Joe Biden told Xi that Beijing had an obligation to attempt to talk North Korea out of a nuclear test, although he said it was unclear whether China could do so. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said before the meeting that Biden would warn Xi that North Korea’s continued weapons development would lead to an enhanced U.S. military presence in the region, something Beijing is not eager to see.
South Korea and the United States have agreed to deploy more U.S. “strategic assets” such as aircraft carriers and long-range bombers to the area, but Yoon said he did not expect changes to the 28,500 American ground forces stationed in South Korea.
“We must respond consistently, and in lockstep with each other,” Yoon said, blaming a lack of consistency in the international response for the failure of three decades of North Korea policy.
China fought beside the North in the 1950-53 Korean War and has backed it economically and diplomatically since, but analysts say Beijing may have limited power, and perhaps little desire, to curb Pyongyang. China says it enforces the UNSC sanctions, which it voted for, but has since called for them to be eased and, along with Russia, blocked U.S.-led attempts to impose new sanctions.
OPPOSES CHANGE TO TAIWAN ‘STATUS QUO’
Boosting ties and coordination with Washington is the core of Yoon’s foreign policy, a focus highlighted by the main item on his desk: a sign saying “The Buck Stops Here”, a gift from Biden.
Like his predecessor, Moon Jae-in, Yoon has treaded cautiously amid the rising U.S.-China rivalry. China is South Korea’s largest trading partner, as well as a close partner of North Korea.
On rising tensions between China and Taiwan, Yoon said any conflict there should be resolved according to international norms and rules.
Democratic Taiwan, which China claims as its own, has come under increasing military and political pressure from Beijing, which has said it would never renounce the use of force against the island.
“I am firmly opposed to any attempt to change the status quo unilaterally,” Yoon said.
When asked about a role in a Taiwan conflict for South Korea or the U.S. troops stationed there, Yoon said that the country’s forces would “consider the overall security situation” but that their most imminent concern would be North Korean military attempts to take advantage of the situation.
“What is important is responding to the imminent threat surrounding us and controlling the possible threat,” he said.
REGIONAL COOPERATION
Yoon has also made increasing cooperation with Japan a core goal, despite lingering legal and political disputes dating to Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula.
South Korea, Japan, and the United States have agreed to share real-time information for tracking North Korean ballistic missile tests.
As part of its biggest military expansion since World War Two, Japan is expected to procure fresh munitions, including longer-range missiles, spend on cyber defences and create a combined air, sea and land command headquarters that will work more closely with U.S. forces in Japan.
Japan’s military ambitions have long been a sensitive issue in neighbouring countries, many of which were invaded before or during World War II.
Yoon’s predecessor stopped many of the trilateral exercises and nearly left an intelligence sharing deal with Tokyo as relations soured.
Now Japan faces more and more threats from North Korea’s missile programme, including tests that overfly Japanese islands, Yoon said.
“I believe the Japanese government cannot be asleep at the wheel with the North Korean missile flights over their territory,” he said.
Reporting by Soyoung Kim, Jack Kim, and Josh Smith; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Nick Macfie and Gerry Doyle
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol overheard insulting U.S. Congress as ‘idiots’
“It would be so humiliating for Biden if these idiots don’t pass it in Congress,” Yoon was overheard telling a group of aides as they left the event. Video of the exchange quickly went viral in South Korea, where Yoon took office in May.
Representatives for Yoon and for the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday. Park Hong-keun, the leader of the opposition Democratic Party in South Korea, criticized Yoon’s “foul language tarnishing the US Congress” as “a major diplomatic mishap,” Agence France-Presse reported.
Yoon and Biden were both in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, where they held discussions on the sidelines Wednesday.
“The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen the U.S.-ROK alliance and ensure close cooperation to address the threat posed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK),” the White House said in a readout of their meeting. “The Presidents also discussed our ongoing cooperation on a broad range of priority issues including supply chain resilience, critical technologies, economic and energy security, global health, and climate change.”
Min Joo Kim contributed to this report.
S.Korea’s Yoon pardons Samsung’s Jay Y. Lee to counter ‘economic crisis’
SEOUL, Aug 12 (Reuters) – South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol pardoned Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee on Friday, with the justice ministry saying the business leader was needed to help overcome a “national economic crisis”.
The pardon is largely symbolic, with Lee already out on parole after serving 18 months in jail for bribery in a scandal that led to massive protests and brought down then-President Park Geun-hye in 2017.
However, analysts said the pardon should mean Lee will be able to carry out business activities with fewer legal restrictions, and could herald some large investments from Samsung, the world’s biggest smartphone and memory-chip maker.
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“With urgent needs to overcome the national economic crisis, we carefully selected economic leaders who lead the national growth engine through active technology investment and job creation to be pardoned,” Justice Minister Han Dong Hoon told a briefing.
Tech- and export-dependent South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy is grappling with soaring inflation, weakening demand, poor sentiment and slowing spending. read more
Lee, an heir of Samsung’s founding family, welcomed the decision and vowed to work hard for the national economy “with continuous investment and job creation.”
Also pardoned by the pro-business Yoon was Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin, who was sentenced to a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence on charges of bribery, also related to Park.
In a statement, Lotte said Shin would also help in “overcoming the complex global crisis.”
POLITICAL CRIMES
Park herself was pardoned late last year by her successor, liberal president Moon Jae-in, who struggled to follow through on campaign vows to clean up business and politics.
A survey conducted last month jointly by four pollsters showed that 77% of respondents favored pardoning the Samsung leader, despite the earlier protests.
“(That support) is apparently due to the current economic situation, but people also seem to have thought in part that Lee was somewhat in a position where he could not shrug off pressure from the former administration,” said Eom Kyeong-young, a political commentator based in Seoul.
While business groups including the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Korea Enterprises Federation welcomed the pardon for Lee, civil rights groups criticized Yoon’s pardons for businessmen.
Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee leaves a court in Seoul, South Korea, August 12, 2022. Yonhap via REUTERS
“The Yoon Suk-yeol administration… is ultimately just aiming for a country only for the rich,” People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy said in a statement.
Another jailed former president, Lee Myung-bak, had been expected to be pardoned after Yoon raised the possibility in June, but was ultimately not on the list. He was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 17 years in prison for corruption, embezzlement and bribery.
BACK IN BUSINESS
Analysts have long expected decisions on major projects and investments once Lee was reinstated, with company sources saying such decisions should only be made by Lee.
“This removes the employment restriction Lee was technically under,” said Park Ju-gun, head of research firm Leaders Index.
“And projects that were being pursued by Samsung, such as major M&A or investments, these could be tied to the pardon.”
Even before receiving the presidential pardon, Lee had returned to the limelight, appearing in May with President Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden when they visited Samsung’s Pyeongtaek chip production facilities.
He has also visited Europe in June to meet ASML Holding NV (ASML.AS) CEO Peter Wennink, discussing the adoption of key high-end chip equipment. read more
Last November, Samsung decided on Taylor, Texas as the site of a new $17 billion chip plant. read more
Top Samsung executives have hinted earlier this year at potential upcoming acquisition activity. Samsung Electronics has not conducted a high-profile deal since it completed its purchase of audio electronics maker Harman for $8 billion in 2017.
Although macroeconomic factors such as a demand downturn may weigh on investment decisions, Samsung has a huge war chest.
Samsung Electronics’ cash balance increased slightly to 125 trillion won ($95.13 billion) as of end-June, from 111 trillion a year earlier.
While experts say Lee could now more freely participate in management, his legal woes persist due to an ongoing trial where he faces the risk of returning to jail if found guilty of charges of fraud and stock manipulation.
Shares in Samsung Electronics closed up 0.5% versus benchmark KOSPI’s (.KS11) 0.2% rise. Lotte Corp (004990.KS) shares were down 0.6%.
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Reporting by Joyce Lee, Soo-hyang Choi, Heekyong Yang; Editing by Lincoln Feast
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Biden, South Korea’s Yoon vow to deter North Korea while offering COVID aid
SEOUL, May 21 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden and his new South Korean counterpart agreed on Saturday to hold bigger military drills and deploy more U.S. weapons if necessary to deter North Korea, while offering to send COVID-19 vaccines and potentially meet Kim Jong Un.
Biden and Yoon Suk-yeol said their countries’ decades-old alliance needed to develop not only to face North Korean threats but to keep the Indo-Pacific region “free and open” and protect global supply chains.
The two leaders are meeting in Seoul for their first diplomatic engagement since the South Korean president’s inauguration 11 days ago. The encounter between allies was clouded by intelligence showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is prepared to conduct nuclear or missile tests.
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Yoon had sought more assurances that the United States would boost its deterrence against North Korean threats. In a joint statement, Biden reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea with nuclear weapons if necessary.
The two sides agreed to consider expanding their combined military drills, which had been scaled back in recent years over COVID-19 and efforts to lower tensions with the North.
The United States also promised to deploy “strategic assets” – which typically include long-range bomber aircraft, missile submarines, or aircraft carriers – if necessary to deter North Korea, according to the statement.
Both leaders said they were committed to denuclearising North Korea and were open to diplomacy with Pyongyang.
“With regard to whether I would meet with the leader of North Korea, it would depend on whether he was sincere and whether he was serious,” Biden told a joint news conference.
He said Washington had offered COVID-19 vaccines to China and North Korea, which is combating its first acknowledged outbreak. “We’ve got no response,” Biden said.
North Korea reported more than 200,000 new patients suffering from fever for a fifth consecutive day on Saturday, but the country has little in the way of vaccines or modern treatment for the pandemic. read more
EXPANDING ALLIANCE
The U.S.-South Korea alliance, which dates to the 1950-1953 Korean War, must further develop to keep the Indo-Pacific “free and open”, Biden said.
U.S. President Joe Biden meets with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at the Presidential Office in Seoul, South Korea May 21, 2022. Jung Yeon-je/Pool via REUTERS
He said the alliance was built on opposition to changing borders by force – an apparent reference to Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s claims over Taiwan.
The joint statement called for preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
When asked by reporters about possible reactions from Beijing, Yoon’s national security advisor Kim Sung-han said those issues were directly linked with South Korea’s national interests, as its ships use the routes.
“So I think there would be little room for Chinese retaliation or misunderstandings about this,” he said.
Changes in international trade and supply chains gave new impetus for the United States and South Korea to deepen their relationship, Yoon said, calling for cooperation on electric batteries and semiconductors.
Biden used the visit to tout investments in the United States by Korean companies, including a move by South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Group to invest about $5.5 billion to build its first dedicated fully electric vehicle and battery manufacturing facilities in the United States. read more
The two leaders toured a Samsung semiconductor plant on Friday, where Biden said countries like the United States and South Korea that “share values” needed to cooperate more to protect economic and national security.
Yoon said the concept of economic security will include cooperating in case of shocks in the foreign exchange market.
The South Korean president, keen to play a bigger role in regional issues, said his country would join Biden’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), which will be announced during the trip to set standards on labour, the environment and supply chains.
China is South Korea’s top trading partner, and Yoon’s aides emphasized that neither the joint statement or the IPEF explicitly excluded any country.
While White House officials have sought to play down any explicit message of countering China, it is a theme of Biden’s trip and one that has caught the eye of Beijing.
“We hope that the U.S. will match its words with deeds and work with countries in the region to promote solidarity and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, instead of plotting division and confrontation,” Chinese envoy for Korean affairs Liu Xiaoming, said on Twitter.
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Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Hyonhee Shin, Jack Kim, Eric Beech and Josh Smith; Editing by William Mallard and Mike Harrison
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South Korea’s incoming president Yoon Suk-yeol and foreign policy
South Korea’s new president-elect Yoon Suk Yeol of the main opposition People Power Party gestures to his supporters as he is congratulated outside the party headquarters in Seoul on March 10, 2022.
Jung Yeon-je | Afp | Getty Images
South Korea’s incoming president Yoon Suk-yeol is expected to revive a conservative stance on foreign policy that could change the country’s relations with the U.S. and China, analysts said.
Relations with North Korea, the U.S. and China will be of particular importance, according to Tom Rafferty, Asia regional director at The Economist Intelligence Unit.
Yoon has signaled he would pursue closer relations with the United States. That could include buying another THAAD missile defense system as a countermeasure against North Korea, said Karl Friedhoff, fellow in public opinion and Asia policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
But a cozier relationship with the U.S. could affect Seoul’s relations with China, South Korea’s largest export market, Rafferty told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Wednesday.
Yoon could try to take a tougher line on China, but Friedhoff said the incoming president would soften when faced with the economic consequences.
Still, Friedhoff told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Wednesday, before results were announced, he expects “alliance management will be smoother under Yoon,” as compared with rival candidate Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party.
Economic trade-offs?
While South Korea has historically supported social issues like human rights and democracy, Friedhoff said the country now faces new economic trade-offs in maintaining those positions.
He said, for example, Seoul may have made itself vulnerable to Moscow’s retaliation by joining international sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I think the big challenge is going to be the fact that when you look at South Korean imports from Russia, roughly 60% of those imports are either crude petroleum or refined petroleum,” he said.
“Russia may turn around and try to punish South Korea for [joining international sanctions] by beginning to restrict some of those exports,” Friedhoff said.
Domestic challenges
But Yoon’s narrow win signals the country is divided on a lot of issues, said Darcie Draudt, a postdoctoral fellow at the George Washington University Institute for Korean Studies.
Yoon, the leading conservative opposition candidate, claimed victory with 48.6% of the vote, beating Lee by less than one percentage point.
“There was tepid response to [Yoon and Lee] initially as candidates, so Yoon really has his work cut out for him, as he mentioned in his acceptance speech, to unite the country,” Draudt told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Thursday.
Gi-Wook Shin, a professor at Stanford University agreed, saying that domestic politics could be filled with a lot of tension and fights in the coming years.
While Yoon was previously South Korea’s top prosecutor, he has limited political experience.
Shin said that combined with the opposition party holding control over the legislature will prove to be a challenge in tackling domestic issues. The EIU’s Rafferty similarly predicted, ahead of the results, that there will be “significant checks and balances on the president’s power from the legislature given liberal control there.”
Shin said while he hoped Yoon would be able to unify Korean society, he also expressed skepticism about whether the conservative would be able to pull it off.
“He may get frustrated [that the opposition controls the National Assembly] and may not be able to work with them,” Shin told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Thursday.
Yoon Suk-yeol Wins South Korean Presidency
SEOUL — A graft prosecutor-turned opposition leader has won an extremely close presidential election in South Korea, reinstating conservatives to power with calls for a more confrontational stance against North Korea and a stronger alliance with the United States.
With 98 percent of the votes counted, the opposition leader, Yoon Suk-yeol, was leading by a margin of 263,000 votes, or 0.8 percentage points, when his opponent conceded early Thursday. It was South Korea’s tightest race since it began holding free presidential elections in 1987.
Mr. Yoon will replace President Moon Jae-in, a progressive leader whose single five-year term ends in May.
The election was widely seen as a referendum on Mr. Moon’s government. Its failure to curb skyrocketing housing prices angered voters. So did #MeToo and corruption scandals involving Mr. Moon’s political allies, as well as a lack of progress in rolling back North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
“This was not an election for the future but an election looking back to judge the Moon administration,” said Prof. Ahn Byong-jin, a political scientist at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. “By electing Yoon, people wanted to punish Moon’s government they deemed incompetent and hypocritical and to demand a fairer society.”
But, as the close results showed, the electorate was closely divided, with many voters lamenting a choice between “unlikables.”
Mr. Yoon’s opponent, Lee Jae-myung of the governing Democratic Party, acknowledged his country’s rifts in his concession speech. “I sincerely ask the president-elect to lead the country over the divide and conflict and open an era of unity and harmony,” he said.
The victory for Mr. Yoon, who is 61, returns conservatives back to power after five years in the political wilderness. His People Power Party had been in disarray following the impeachment of its leader, President Park Geun-hye, whom Mr. Yoon helped convict and imprison on corruption charges. Mr. Yoon, who also went after another former president and the head of Samsung, was recruited by the party to engineer a conservative revival.
The election was watched closely by both South Korea’s neighbors and the United States government. Mr. Yoon’s election might upend the current president’s progressive agenda, especially his policy of seeking dialogue and peace with North Korea. As president, Mr. Moon has met with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, three times, though that did nothing to stop Mr. Kim from rapidly expanding his nuclear weapons program.
Mr. Yoon has vehemently criticized Mr. Moon’s approach on North Korea, as well as toward China.
He insists that U.N. sanctions should be enforced until North Korea is completely denuclearized, a stance that aligns more closely with Washington’s than with Mr. Moon’s, and is anathema to North Korea. Mr. Yoon has also called for ratcheting up joint military drills between South Korea and the United States — which were scaled down under Mr. Moon — another stance likely to rile North Korea, which may now raise tensions through more weapons tests.
“Peace is meaningless unless it is backed by power,” Mr. Yoon said during the campaign. “War can be avoided only when we acquire an ability to launch pre-emptive strikes and show our willingness to use them.”
Mr. Moon has kept a balance between the United States, South Korea’s most important ally, and China, its biggest trading partner — an approach known as “strategic ambiguity.” Mr. Yoon said he would show “strategic clarity,” and favor Washington. He called the rivalry between the two great powers “a contest between liberalism and authoritarianism.”
North Korea will likely pose Mr. Yoon’s first foreign policy crisis.
It has conducted a flurry of missile tests this year and might consider Mr. Yoon’s confrontational rhetoric the prod it needs to escalate tensions further.
“We will see North Korea return to a power-for-power standoff, at least in the early part of Yoon’s term,” said Lee Byong-chul, a North Korea expert at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.
Mr. Yoon served as prosecutor general under Mr. Moon. His political stock rose among conservative South Koreans when he resigned last year and became a bitter critic of his former boss. Pre-election surveys had indicated that South Koreans would vote for Mr. Yoon less because they liked him than to show their anger at Mr. Moon and his Democratic Party.
“This was such a hot and heated race,’’ Mr. Yoon told a gathering of supporters at the National Assembly Library. “But the competition is over and now it’s time for us to join our forces together for the people and the nation.”
The deepening uncertainty, made worse by two years of Covid restrictions, has left many, especially young people, anxious about the future.
“We are the betrayed generation,” said Kim Go-eun, 31, who works for a convenience store chain. “We have been taught that if we studied and worked hard, we would have a decent job and economically stable life. None of that has come true.
“No matter how hard we try, we don’t see a chance to join the middle class,” she said.
The campaign also exposed a nation deeply divided over gender conflicts. Mr. Yoon was accused of pandering to widespread sentiment against China and against feminists among young men, whose support proved crucial to his victory. Exit polls showed the voters in their 20s split sharply along the gender line, with men favoring Mr. Yoon and women Mr. Lee.
Young men said they were gravitating toward Mr. Yoon because he spoke to some of their deepest concerns, like the fear that an influx of immigrants and a growing feminist movement would further erode their job opportunities. Professor Ahn likened the phenomenon to “Trumpism.”
“We may not be completely satisfied with Yoon, but he is the only hope we’ve got,” said Kim Seong-heon, 26, a university student in Seoul who lives in a windowless room barely big enough to squeeze in a bed and closet.
Mr. Yoon promised deregulation to spur investment. He also promised 2.5 million new homes to make housing more affordable.
But the newly elected president may face fierce resistance at the National Assembly, where Mr. Moon’s Democratic Party holds a majority. Mr. Yoon’s campaign promise to abolish the country’s ministry of gender equality may prove particularly contentious.
He also has to contend with a bitter, disillusioned public.
New allegations of legal and ethical misconduct emerged almost daily to cast doubt on Mr. Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon-hee, as well as on his rival, Mr. Lee.
Many voters felt they were left with an unappealing choice.
“It was not about whom you liked better but about whom you hated less,” said Jeong Sang-min, 35, a logistics official at an international apparel company.