The political scientist made compromises in relations between South Korea and North Korea under Lee Jae-myung

South Korea, under new President Lee Jae-myung, may move away from confrontation with the DPRK. This was stated by Alexander Zhebin, a leading researcher at the Center for Korean Studies at the Institute of China and Modern Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in an interview with Izvestia on June 4.

According to him, the future foreign policy strategy of South Korea will be strongly influenced by the policies of US President Donald Trump, especially his decisions on tariffs, as well as global turbulence. One of the important issues is solving the problem of reducing the US military contingent in South Korea.

"The issue of reducing the number of US troops will be the subject of bargaining in negotiations on a possible increase in South Korea's spending on maintaining American troops in the country. Trump raised this problem during his first presidential term," Zhebin stressed.

Lee Jae-myung is against escalating confrontation on the Korean peninsula, the political scientist believes. According to him, the new president belonged to the segment of the country's political class that shared the idea of compromise contractual solutions with regard to the DPRK.

"We can expect that the line of fierce frontal confrontation with the DPRK, which was conducted under Yun Suk, will hardly, if not disappear completely, then significantly dissolve," he said.

"We should not expect serious changes in policy towards the Russian Federation"

Experts explained whether it is worth waiting for a thaw in relations between Moscow and Seoul and how the situation on the Korean peninsula will develop.

According to the political scientist, the new president also understands that the country will not benefit from the aggravation of relations with China and Russia.

"On the issue of relations with Russia, Lee Jae-myung, of course, will take into account the restrictions imposed by the military-political alliance of the Republic of Korea with the United States. Much will depend on Russian-American relations. If they improve, he will have a free hand to take steps in this direction too. There are many people in the country who understand that it will be very difficult to solve the security problems on the Korean peninsula without Russia," Zhebin said.

He added that South Korean business circles and part of the ruling elite were inclined not to curtail either trade and economic relations or other cooperation with the Russian Federation, and also opposed "blindly following the Americans."

The expert also stated that if Lee Jae-myung is invited to the G7 and NATO summits at the end of June, his meeting with Trump at these events cannot be ruled out. If such invitations are received and the meeting is agreed upon, it will also affect the first foreign policy steps of the new administration of the Republic of Korea.

Early presidential elections in South Korea were scheduled for June 3 after the country's constitutional court approved the impeachment of President Yoon Seok-yeol on April 4. Han Dok-soo was declared acting head of state.

Lee Jae-myung won the early presidential election with 49.42% of the vote. His opponent, Kim Moon-soo, a presidential candidate from the conservative People's Power Party, scored 41.15%.