The Election of Yoon Suk-yeol and Implications for the United States

Just days after the election of South Korean (ROK) President, Yoon Seok-yeol, NBR convened a bipartisan group of House and Senate staff and three experts to discuss the implications of Yoon’s election for U.S. interests on the Korean Peninsula and in the broader Indo-Pacific region. South Korea has become a global power and one of the United States’ strongest allies, but its incoming president faces numerous challenges. Recent trends of deglobalization and growing interstate divisions along the lines of supply chains and technology present novel risks to economic security. As the United States organizes its alliance network to reduce these risks and more effectively compete with China, North Korea has rejected nuclear negotiations and continues advancing its military capabilities.

On March 14, 2022, NBR convened experts for a congressional briefing on the Yoon administration’s policy priorities and the bilateral and regional dynamics that may result. The discussion covered North Korea policy and U.S.-ROK alliance coordination; ROK-China relations and cooperation with the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy; and ROK foreign economic and technology policy.

Participants

Panelists

Lee Seong-hyon
Senior Fellow, the George H. W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations and Visiting Scholar, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University

June Park
Political Economist & Fung Global Fellow, Princeton University

Jenny Town
Senior Fellow at the Stimson Center and the Director of Stimson’s 38 North Program

Moderator

Josh Nezam
Director of Congressional Affairs, The National Bureau of Asian Research

Banner image: DEMA(Defense Media Agency)