Moon among world's 100 most influential people: Time magazine
By Park Ji-won
Time magazine has pickedPresident Moon Jae-in as one of its 100 most influential people in the world.
The list, unveiled Thursday, includes U.S. President Donald Trump, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Japanese leader Shinzo Abe.
(Check:
https://time.com/collection/most-influential-people-2018/5217576/moon-jae-in
)
Recommending Moon for the list, former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert, who served in South Korea from 2014 to 2017, wrote about Moon that he was compassionate and engaged as the opposition leader in the past and made dramatic moves with North Korea after being elected as the South Korean leader.
“Following his election to the presidency in 2017, Moon has made dramatic moves with regard to North Korea: hosting Kim Jong-un’s sister at the Winter Olympics, agreeing to an inter-Korean summit and brokering what could be the first-ever U.S.-North Korea summit between President Trump and Kim,” Lippert wrote.
“Moon Jae-in was quick to visit me in the hospital in Seoul after I was attacked by a knife-wielding pro-North Korean nationalist while serving as U.S. ambassador in 2015. Befitting his reputation, Moon, then the opposition leader, was compassionate and engaged.”
“Moon must now navigate between the U.S. and North Korea, as well as regional rivalries, to rid Pyongyang of illegal nuclear weapons and missile programs.”.
North Korean defector Lee Hyeon-seo wrote about Kim, saying he may not be so bad after all.
“The new year may have stirred hopes that Kim Jong-un might not be so bad after all: he did reach out to South Korea during the Winter Olympics, offer to meet President Trump, and meanwhile suspend missile and nuclear tests,” the defector said.
However, Lee emphasized that he is the most dangerous person on the planet, saying “armed guards now patrol the river over which I fled to China in 1997; they recently gunned down a woman trying to cross in broad daylight. I could never have defected under his regime.”
On the same day, Fortune magazine ranked Moon fourth among the world’s 50 greatest leaders.
“Yet Moon speedily enacted reforms aimed at creating a fairer economy, such as boosting the minimum wage, expanding health coverage, and addressing the influence of the country’s family-owned conglomerates. Moon has been pivotal in arranging talks between President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, a possible prelude to inter-Korean reconciliation,” the magazine wrote.