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| 2026-05-31 06:00:02
(News Focus) president-inauguration anniv
(News Focus) 1 year in office, Lee shakes off shadow of martial law, but daunting tasks remain
By Park Bo-ram
SEOUL, May 31 (Yonhap) -- One year into his presidency, President Lee Jae Myung appears to have successfully restored diplomacy strained by the brief martial law imposed by his ousted predecessor while holding those involved accountable, largely shaking off the shadow of the turmoil, political observers noted Sunday.
Many daunting tasks remain, however, such as keeping growth momentum amid the prolonged conflict in the Middle East and supply chain disruptions on the economic front, and revising the Constitution on the domestic side to reflect what the ruling Democratic Party (DP) has claimed to be much-needed changes to the supreme law that has remained intact for nearly four decades since 1987.
On Thursday, Lee will mark the first anniversary of his inauguration, which came after former President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached and removed from office following his declaration of martial law in December 2024.
Awaiting Lee on his first day in office was the mounting tariff pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, which had remained largely unaddressed as the country reeled from the aftermath of Yoon's martial law imposition and a subsequent leadership vacuum.
Trump had announced a plan to impose 25 percent reciprocal tariffs on South Korean products beginning in August 2025.
Through two rounds of summits with Trump -- in August in Washington and in October in South Korea's southeastern city of Gyeongju -- Lee clinched a deal to lower the U.S. reciprocal tariff rate on South Korean imports to 15 percent.
Lee additionally secured U.S. approval for Seoul to pursue the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines in what the observers here said was a military and diplomatic triumph for Seoul that can better prepare the country against North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats.
With Japan, Lee has held multiple summit meetings with Japanese prime ministers, beginning with Shigeru Ishiba in June 2025 and most recently with Sanae Takaichi in his home town of Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, earlier this month, establishing "shuttle diplomacy."
Lee and Takaichi have met three times in less than a year since the latter took office in October 2025.
The Lee administration also wasted no time in holding Yoon and those involved in the martial law declaration accountable.
Soon after its launch, the Lee government approved legislation mandating special counsel investigations into Yoon and other former officials, as well as corruption allegations surrounding Yoon's wife, Kim Keon Hee.
In subsequent trials, Yoon was sentenced in February to life imprisonment on insurrection charges, while former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo received a 15-year prison term for his role in the martial law imposition.
In another high-profile move, the National Assembly, dominated by the ruling party, passed a government restructuring bill that would abolish the nearly 80-year-old prosecution service, long accused of political interference and abuse of power.
The law is set to take effect in September, establishing a new public prosecution office in place of the prosecution service. The new office would be tasked solely with initiating and maintaining indictments, without investigative authority, which will be transferred to a new serious crime investigation office to be set up under the interior ministry.
Entering the second year of his single five-year term, equally daunting tasks lie ahead for Lee, according to the observers.
On the economic front, the Lee administration has enjoyed record high exports and stock indexes in its first year in office, both largely helped by a semiconductor supercycle driven by artificial intelligence (AI).
The country's benchmark stock index, the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), has more than tripled in just a year since the Lee administration set sail, approaching the 8,500-point mark as of Friday.
South Korea's exports have also been on a sharp increase, jumping more than 50 percent from a year earlier to US$85.89 billion in April, exceeding the $80 billion mark for the second consecutive month and reaching the second-highest amount in the country's history after the record high of $86.6 billion posted just the previous month.
Against such a backdrop, the Bank of Korea (BOK) has revised up its 2026 growth forecast for the local economy to 2.6 percent, up 0.6 percentage point from its previous prediction in February, marking its largest upward revision since May 2021.
In 2027, the South Korean economy is expected to expand 2.1 percent on-year, according to the BOK estimate. Its growth, however, may slow to as low as 1.9 percent should the AI-driven semiconductor upcycle wane earlier than anticipated.
Fueled by uncertainties, including the conflict in the Middle East, South Korea also continues to face pressure from high inflation and an unprecedentedly weak won against the strong U.S. dollar, which have especially weighed heavily on lower-income households.
Runaway housing prices, which had remained unchecked for years, also continue to pose one of the most daunting challenges for Lee, who has repeatedly voiced a need to rein in the real estate market, according to the observers.
Upcoming working-level negotiations with the United States over Seoul's pursuit of nuclear-powered submarines, along with uranium enrichment and spent nuclear fuel reprocessing capabilities, may present another challenge for Lee at a time when Seoul and Washington are reportedly showing subtle disagreement over the timing of the transfer of wartime operational control from Washington to Seoul, they said.
Seemingly growing wealth disparities may also emerge as a key challenge for the Lee administration, as a recent strike threat by unionized workers at Samsung Electronics Co. highlighted widening income gaps not just between income earners but also between different industries.
A constitutional revision will be another major, and possibly the most daunting, task for Lee, the observers note.
The president and the ruling DP earlier pushed for an amendment bill aimed at tightening the rules for declaring martial law but failed due to an opposition boycott that left the National Assembly short of a quorum.
The president has hinted at the possibility of additional attempts down the road to amend the Constitution, saying it may be "practical" to pursue partial changes in phases if necessary.
"It is difficult to sufficiently guarantee, under the current Constitution, the current level of South Korea's democracy, the people's living conditions and the country's future," he told a Cabinet meeting earlier this month, stressing the need to change the Constitution.
"There needs to be a practical approach to do as much as possible."
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