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South Korea’s president Lee Jae-myung, center, and his wife Kim Hye-kyung, right, leave after the inauguration ceremony at the National Assembly in Seoul on Wednesday. | AFP photo

SOUTH Korea’s president Lee Jae-myung vowed to reach out to the nuclear-armed North and heal wounds’ as he took office Wednesday, after winning a snap election triggered by his predecessor’s disastrous martial law declaration.

South Korea’s new centre-left leader also warned that rising protectionism and supply chain restructuring pose an existential threat to Asia’s export-dependent fourth-largest economy, which has been buffeted by the global trade chaos sparked by US president Donald Trump.


Lee scored a thumping victory over conservative Kim Moon-soo of the disgraced ex-president’s former party.

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