Lee, who was elected on June 3 in a snap election, said economic recovery that would improve the lives of people has been his top priority.

“It is a time when proactive and bold role of national finance is more important than ever,” Lee, who has pledged to implement expansionary fiscal policy, said in his opening remarks.

The president also promised to normalise the condition of democracy and foreign policy in a country that had been through “a national crisis.”

Lee’s predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol, declared martial law in December, shocking a nation that had come to pride itself as a thriving democracy having overcome military dictatorship in the 1980s and triggering an unprecedented constitutional crisis in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

Lee’s administration has proposed US$14.7 billion of extra government spending to support sluggish domestic demand. Parliament controlled by his Democratic Party is expected to vote on the budget bill soon.

The president also said in his opening remarks he was doing his best to achieve a “mutually beneficial and sustainable” outcome from trade negotiations with the US.

South Korea is hoping to contain the impact of the threatened punishing US tariffs that could weigh on an export-reliant economy with major semiconductor, auto and steel industries.