IINA: Lee Jae-myung’s Pragmatic Diplomacy: Between Alliance and Autonomy

By Shinae Lee, Research Fellow The Sasakawa Peace Foundation

South Korea’s new Lee Jae-myung administration is betting on “pragmatic diplomacy” to navigate the storm of a volatile geopolitical landscape, at a time when the core tenets of its foreign policy—pursuing both a strong alliance with the U.S. and a close economic partnership with China—are under growing strain. In his inaugural address at the National Assembly on June 4, President Lee declared that “through pragmatic, national-interest-centered diplomacy, we [South Korea] will turn the crisis of global economic and security shifts into opportunities to maximize national interest.”