Seoul’s next leader faces limited choices over North Korea

By KIM TONG-HYUNG and HYUNG-JIN KIM
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — After winning last week’s presidential election, South Korean conservative Yoon Suk Yeol will enter office facing a quickly growing North Korean nuclear threat — and with few easy choices to deal with it. A former prosecutor with no foreign policy experience, Yoon has risen to be a conservative icon in South Korea within nine months of opening a political career. He will face a turbulent moment in global affairs and the decades-old standoff with the North, in which many experts see Seoul as having lost leverage under the outgoing president, a liberal who sought closer ties. Yoon takes office in May and could be tested quickly. North Korea often attempts to rattle new administrations in Washington or Seoul with major weapons demonstrations.