Four challenges for Moon Jae-in, South Korea's new president

Selfies, coffee and a jacket were all that new South Korean President Moon Jae-in needed to powerfully project an image that he's a down-to-earth leader. This is the second conservative-to-liberal transition of power in the country's democratic history.

Moon assumed presidential duties early in the morning after the National Election Commission finished counting Tuesday's votes and declared him victor of the special election necessitated by the ousting of conservative Park Geun-hye, whose downfall and jailing on corruption charges is one of the most turbulent stretches in the nation's recent political history. This was not expected by many in South Korea. Issues from North Korea and THAAD to trade will test that notion. Before he died in 2009, Roh (under whom I served as Foreign Minister) was a political mentor and close friend to Moon. Although Ostpolitik could not change the East German regime's nature, it did make East Germany heavily dependent on West Germany, and gave Kohl significant political leverage during the reunification process. The nuclear issue is now central to inter-Korean relations.

Which of South Korea's neighbors and allies stand to benefit most from liberal Moon Jae-in's ascension to the presidency this week?

Moon also has fences to mend with China, South Korea's biggest trading partner. During the campaign, Moon took issue with the USA administration's approach to North Korea. Bear in mind too that given the growth of the global sanctions regime around North Korea since the early-2000s and the clearer optics around Pyongyang's "rogue" status, Moon can't simply flick a switch to bring back Sunshine-era inter-Korean engagement.

Moon, candidate for the social liberal Democratic Party of Korea, was elected as the 19th president of South Korea on May 9 with a vote share of 41.08 percent.

What I find fascinating with Moon's election - which, to be fair, didn't catch many analysts off-guard given the collapse of South Korea's conservatives following the Park scandal - is the return of potential alliance policy coordination problems. South Korean liberals argue that this policy compromised the national goal of peaceful reunification, by turning it into an empty slogan. They believe that maintaining inter-Korean relations will lay the groundwork for reunifying the Peninsula, just as Ostpolitik did in Germany. Thus, Moon will most likely pursue a two-pronged strategy that pairs denuclearisation with engagement and preparations for eventual reunification.

Moon began his duties earlier in the day by receiving a briefing about North Korea from Army Gen.

Beijing will be hoping for concessions from Moon to get relations back on track after months of Chinese fury over South Korea's decision to deploy THAAD.

"I will urgently try to solve the security crisis", Moon said in the domed rotunda hall of the parliament building.

Moon also said he'll "sincerely negotiate" with the United States and China over the deployment of the US's THAAD missile-defense system that's unpopular with many South Koreans. Otherwise, he would face a serious domestic backlash from both the left and the right.

Moon's election could add volatility to relations with Washington, given his questioning of the THAAD deployment, but it was not expected to change the alliance significantly, a USA official said. The missile defense system was an important topic in the last phase of the election campaign when US President Donald Trump and his security adviser pointed that Seoul must fund THAAD completely or at least jointly, like other security measures. -South Korea relationship. Given the most recent data, however, this seems an unlikely course of action for the new president.

Yonhap News Agency reported Moon had already decided on provincial governor Lee Nak-yon as prime minister, although a spokesman for Moon said he was unaware of the report and declined to comment further.