Amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff pressure, from which seemingly no ally is safe, and China’s increasingly blatant gray-zone provocations, it is time to begin addressing the diplomatic tasks that await the new president's attention.

Facing a complex set of thorny challenges at home and abroad, Lee Jae-myung says he will deal with them with “pragmatism.”

In his inauguration speech, Lee Jae-myung, South Korea’s newly elected president, pledged to strengthen the nation’s alliance with the United States while pursuing a pragmatic relationship with China.