The election of Lee Jae-myung as South Korea’s new president marks a major shift in the country’s political landscape and will also have implications for the geopolitical dynamics of East Asia. Upon taking office,

South Korea has elected liberal Lee Jae-myung as president to lead the country through a tumultuous period that will require negotiating trade tariffs with the U.S. and mending the scars from his ousted predecessor's shock martial law declaration.

South Korea’s presidential election result was never really in doubt. The real question is which version of Lee Jae-myung will now govern the highly polarized nation of 50 million.