Lee Jae-myung’s presidential victory on Tuesday ended South Korea’s prolonged leadership crisis, but it raises a fundamental question that will shape geopolitics in Northeast Asia for the next five years: What version of Lee will North Korea get?

Lee rose to prominence as a progressive firebrand who pursued inter-Korean cooperation and criticized U.S. military asset deployments to the peninsula. But during his campaign, he rebranded himself as a centrist, pro-Washington politician who would strengthen the alliance and nurture trilateral cooperation with the U.S. and Japan against DPRK threats.

The Democratic Party