South Korea Parliamentary Elections a Huge Defeat for President Yoon

While South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol was hoping that his party could regain the majority in the parliamentary elections this past week, the vote went entirely the other way, with the opposition Democratic Party taking 175 of the 300 seats. The opposition is much closer to China and friendlier to North Korea, but the structure of government will not allow the majority to make any major changes to the government’s policies. Nonetheless, it will be more difficult for Yoon to gain popular support for his policies, and this could affect his foreign policy options, such as the Asian NATO being constructed by the Biden team diplomacy in Asia.