Dear Member,

​At our meeting on May 19, President Yoon will have been in office for nine days.  At the change of administration, we have either issued a White Paper or dedicated a KBF session to the new President and think that a KBF session is the best way to approach the uncertainties. 

​As we said in the last session this is a bad time to become President with a series of insoluble problems, including inflation, supply chain issues, housing supply and demand, and lockdowns in China, as well as the opportunity to make policy mistakes. Add to this the fact that this is the first time since Synghman Rhee’s 1948 Assembly that the opposition has such a majority of seats in the Assembly, so no legislation proposed by the Yoon administration is guaranteed to pass the Assembly.  There are already apparent contradictions. The incoming government has already committed to put more money into the economy even as the Bank of Korea is taking it out.  

​After looking at the state of the economy and the cabinet and the rather frivolous shift in the President office we will look in some detail at the  quirky 110 action areas that the Transition Committee has put together under some even more quirky headings including “Common Sense Decisions” which form the first five actions.   We also hope to have details of the action programmes from the special committees on covid, national unity and regional development.   There is going to need to be some fast talking on the issue of GHG emissions and climate change to see if the government is likely to renege on the 2030 pledge.

​It will be too early for most if not all the Ministerial Briefings which each Ministry will give to the President.  But the President will probably want to make a distinct impression to influence the important local elections on June 1

​It is also necessary to look at the foreign policy shifts and what they may mean not just for China, Japan and the USA but also for South East Asia including North Korea’s stream of missiles.  Our session will be held the day before President Biden visits Korea.  We may expect the Chinese Vice President who will attend the President’s inauguration to suggest the date of Xi Jing-ping’s long delayed visit.

​Join us to discuss the outlook for business and society as the country shifts from Moon’s post socialism and to Yoon’s own brand of conservatism.

Our session will be hybrid with every attention to ensure equal satisfaction for those attending in person and those staying on line.  The venue will be announced after we see how many people will attend off-line.