South Korea's new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, said on Tuesday that North Korea's weapons programmes pose a threat but that he is ready to provide an "audacious" economic plan if Pyongyang is committed to denuclearisation.

Yoon gave the remarks in his inauguration speech after being sworn in at a ceremony in Seoul. He won a tight election in March as the standard-bearer of the main conservative People Power Party, less than a year after entering politics following a 26-year career as a prosecutor.

Yoon, 61, will face two major problems as he takes office: a belligerent North Korea testing new weapons and inflation threatening to undermine an economic recovery from two years of Covid-19 gloom.

He has signalled...