Yoon Suk-yeol became South Korea’s President on Tuesday, using his inaugural speech to argue that South Korean democracy faces a “crisis” due to “anti-intellectualism” and casting the country as a responsible stakeholder standing up to infringement of freedom caused by abuse of power and “armed conflicts” in other countries.   

Yoon mentioned “freedom” 35 times in the speech, followed by “global citizen/citizen” and Korean “people” 15 times each. “World” was mentioned 13 times, “peace” 12 times, “international” 12 times, “democracy” and “crisis” – mostly used together – eight times each, and “solidarity” six times. 

Neither the U.S., China, nor Japan were