Park Geun-hye, the winner of Wednesday’s presidential vote in South Korea, has no time to revel in her hard-won victory, facing a range of difficult tasks. The president-elect is set to go through tougher and more complicated external conditions and internal challenges than any previous leader.

The continuous advancement and prosperity of the country as a middle power with a ripe democracy and robust free-market economy depends on her performance. The daughter of late President Park Chung-hee, who ruled South Korea for 18 years until his assassination in 1979, is to make her mark on history as the nation’s first female president.

The close contest between the two main contenders ― Park of the conservative ruling Saenuri Party and Moon Jae-in of the liberal opposition Democratic United Party ― has poured out a flood of populist pledges and deepened a rift along ideological and generational lines among voters. The public’s bloated expectation of increased welfare benefits and the widened fault line dividing Korean society, unless addressed quickly and properly, might drag down the successor to outgoing President Lee Myung-bak throughout her five-year term, which begins in late February.

Park must first take initiatives to enhance national unity to lay the groundwork for her successful presidency. Measures should be taken to soothe the feelings of loss and animosity in her defeated rival’s camp and draw wider support from the public. The most important virtue required of the country’s next leader now is inclusive and tolerant leadership to heal the scars left by the bruising election campaigns and bond together the people beyond ideological, regional and generational barriers. Only then will the nation be able to propel itself through formidable challenges that lie ahead.

The 60-year-old president-elect is also advised to check again the feasibility of campaign pledges that are meant to satisfy the needs of the people. Crisscrossing the country on their campaign trails, Park and Moon put forward more than 1,000 promises, only a dozen of which might be actually kept, taking into account financial restrictions.

During their third and last TV debate Sunday, they outlined plans to raise additional funds ― the yearly amounts being about 27 trillion won ($25.1 billion) for Park and 37 trillion won for Moon ― by readjusting the budget, tightening tax loopholes and increasing levies on the wealthy. But realistically, their funding schemes appear hard to achieve.

Park is now required to have the courage and honesty to acknowledge the financial limits on implementing all her pledges to expand welfare, trimming them to core support programs. That would help avert more public discontent and social conflict, which might become a drag on the next administration over the years to come.

In the weeks before taking office, Park should take a firm grasp of the changing situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula and make a prudent check on the relevance of her planned approach toward North Korea. It was worrisome that security and diplomatic agenda were noticeably missing from the discourse of the presidential campaign.

From the first day in office, the incoming president will have to face the crucial task of navigating the country through mounting rivalry among neighboring powers and increasing threats from the unpredictable regime in Pyongyang.

Seoul should be equipped with both long-term strategies and sophisticated tactics to be best positioned to keep and enhance its interests amid escalating confrontation between Washington and Beijing over hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region and rising nationalism in China and Japan. The next president and her aides will also have to review whether their current schemes for making a breakthrough in the frozen inter-Korean ties will be effective in leading Pyongyang to discard its nuclear and long-range rocket programs and take a path toward serious reform and openness.

To consolidate the groundwork for enhancing national unity and smoothing out thorny tasks facing the country, the president-elect will need, and should try, to gain cooperation from her defeated rival. We see and hope that the possibility of Park and Moon forming such collaborative ties is higher than any other presidential contenders in the past.

Though their campaigns were not free of slander and false accusations, they did not show extreme animosity toward each other. They were criticized for lacking the power and visions to inspire the people but their rational and moderate personality is a valuable trait that should not be ignored. Above all, they have suggested similar pledges on political reform, matters related to the people’s livelihoods and how to handle North Korea.

It is hoped that they will set a precedent in the country’s bruising politics by holding talks ― preferably in an informal setting ― and then continuing cooperative communication. The external challenges and domestic difficulties make it all the more necessary for the election loser to swallow bitter feelings and play a constructive role for the nation.

In the course of the next presidency, the economy is expected to remain sluggish amid a prolonged global downturn. Experts forecast South Korea’s annual economic growth rate will fall short of 3 percent over the coming years. Their prediction is backed by a recent survey of the 30 largest conglomerates, which showed 22 of them had no plans for new investments.

Under this circumstance, the incoming president will have to be adroit in ensuring balance between policies to tame the ever-growing influence and unfair practices of big businesses and boost economic growth and employment. Serious consideration needs to be given to a suggestion by a group of former economic officials and private researchers that the focus of the economic policy should be put on raising the country’s growth potential over the long term.

Last but not least, the president-elect should make personnel appointments based on integrity and merit, not personal connections. Lee and nearly all his predecessors had difficulty securing public support for their agenda at the initial stage of their presidency after appointing inappropriate people to some key posts. In a sense, objective and transparent personnel management is the most important prerequisite for ensuring national harmony and mobilizing all potential of the country.

Park’s win may have been owed largely to a long list of promises on benefits for the people. But the success of her presidency may prove to hinge on how much potential, endeavor and passion the new leader will draw out of them.