South Korea’s upcoming presidential election in June could bring major changes to ROK policy toward North Korea, with former opposition leader Lee Jae-myung the early favorite as parties finalize their candidates.

But while Lee once made inter-Korean peace a pillar of his political identity, his pivot toward the center has raised questions about how he will approach a dramatically reshaped security landscape — marked by Pyongyang’s increasingly hostile stance toward Seoul and deepening military ties with Moscow.

One of the voices who could shape Lee’s DPRK policy positions is Yang Moo-jin, president of the Seoul-based University of North Korean Studies