Yoon Suk-yeol became South Korea’s President on Tuesday, using his inaugural speech to argue that South Korean democracy faces a “crisis” due to “anti-intellectualism” and casting the country as a responsible stakeholder standing up to infringement of freedom caused by abuse of power and “armed conflicts” in other countries.   

Yoon mentioned “freedom” 35 times in the speech, followed by “global citizen/citizen” and Korean “people” 15 times each. “World” was mentioned 13 times, “peace” 12 times, “international” 12 times, “democracy” and “crisis” – mostly used together – eight times each, and “solidarity” six times. 

Neither the U.S., China, nor Japan were mentioned at all in the speech, delivered to some 40,000 guests gathered at the National Assembly, including U.S. Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff and Xi Jinping’s right-hand man Wang Qishan. North Korea was mentioned four times – the only country the South Korean president mentioned aside from his own.

Tuesday’s inauguration ceremony also included the controversial opening of the former presidential compound, the Blue House, to the general public and was the most