Seoul’s next leader will prioritise global ambitions

Significance

Moon Jae-in’s preoccupations in his final year as president will remain local -- not least, coordinating policy on North Korea with the Biden administration. However, his successor, to be elected in March 2022, will have broader horizons.

Impacts

• Ignoring Pyongyang may prompt new and potentially bloody provocations, as happened to President Lee Myung-bak in 2010.
• South Korea will pursue fresh free trade agreements. Its declared intention to join the CPTPP has not yet yielded a specific roadmap.
• Asia will remain Seoul’s main focus; South Asia, especially India, offers many untapped synergies.
• ‘Top table’ ambitions such as the G7 summit will make it more difficult for Seoul to ignore human rights in its diplomacy, as it used to.