
How South Korea's new president could shake up the region
CNN
South Korea's new president is taking power at a turbulent time for the country and the path he carves could shake up the region.
Conservative Yoon Suk Yeol of the People Power Party secured the election by a razor-thin margin Wednesday, pulling ahead of rival Lee Jae-myung by less than one percentage point.
Yoon is a newcomer to politics, having spent the last 27 years of his career as a prosecutor -- but he will face an array of challenges when he replaces liberal incumbent President Moon Jae-in in the Blue House on May 10.

More than two decades ago, on January 24, 2004, I landed in Baghdad as a legal adviser, assigned an office in what was then known as the Green Zone. It was raining and cold, and my duffle bag was thrown into a puddle off the C-130 aircraft that had just done a corkscrew dive to reach the runway without risk of ground fire. Young American soldiers greeted me as we piled into a vehicle, sped out of the airport complex and then along a road called the “Highway of Death” due to car bombs and snipers.












