On March 9, the conservative People Power Party candidate Yoon Suk-yeol prevailed in one of the closest and most divisive presidential elections in South Korean history. Although domestic issues such as soaring housing prices, underemployment, and gender politics dominated campaign discourse and rallied voters, Yoon’s victory is expected to bring about a significant shift in the country’s foreign policy.

For the last five years, Seoul’s foreign policy has been driven by an intense desire to improve inter-Korean relations. President Moon Jae-in made inter-Korean relations his top foreign policy priority, wanting Seoul to be “in the driver’s seat” in changing the security dynamics on the Korean Peninsula. He centered his policy on building a peace regime and pursued high-level engagement with North Korea, eventually pulling the United States into the mix as well. This engineered a summit-driven diplomatic process that worked to transform inter-Korean relations in the short term and move Pyongyang and Washington off the collision course they were on.

However, Moon’s overwhelming focus on North Korea during his tenure and desire to improve relations as a means of reducing tensions and working toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula will not be replicated by the incoming administration. President-elect Yoon’s approach to North Korea falls back on the more mainstream conservative approach, one where North Korea’s “complete and verifiable denuclearization” serves as the basis for improving inter-Korean relations and requires Pyongyang to make meaningful moves down that path first in order for Seoul to re-engage on issues such as economic assistance, sanctions relief, and a peace agreement.

Read full commentary published by the National Bureau of Asian Research.