Moon urges bipartisan support to overcome pandemic

President Moon Jae-in speaks during a meeting with his senior aides, Aprill 20, at Cheong Wa Dae. Yonhap

By Do Je-hae

President Moon Jae-in stressed the importance of parliamentary cooperation in dealing with the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis during a meeting with senior presidential aides, Monday.

This was the first time for the President to speak about the results of the April 15 general election, in which the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) clinched an astonishing victory over the main opposition United Future Party (UFP), snatching 180 out of 300 parliamentary seats in the 21st National Assembly to be inaugurated May 30.

“The most important thing is to overcome the national difficulties. We can talk about a tomorrow only after protecting the people's lives and saving the economy. I believe that the meaning of this general election is the citizens telling us to work together to overcome the national crisis,” Moon said at the start of the meeting, according to press pool reports.

“Koreans are people who have never been defeated by a crisis. This time as well, Korea will become a country which has overcome the crisis the fastest, a country that opens new opportunities and hopes despite difficulties. Remembering people who empowered the government to overcome the national difficulties, we'll move ahead audaciously.”

Moon said the final call of the outgoing 20th National Assembly should be to cooperate on overcoming the national crisis, and for this, he asked the opposition to cooperate with the ruling party with wisdom and competence.

“For people in politics, I want to remind them that the only thing to fear is not the virus, but the people,” Moon said. “The people have given us grave command to overcome the crisis, which the government and the ruling party must take full responsibility for.”

The President instructed the government to prepare measures for easing the economic difficulties such as rising unemployment that is expected to hit society hard in the post-pandemic period.

“With the economic crisis in full swing, negative growth is expected this year and many people are at risk of losing their jobs,” Moon added. “However, if we work together in solidarity and cooperation as we did for the quarantine, we can become a country that has successfully overcome the crisis by minimizing damage to the economy. It is time to strengthen cross-governmental capabilities for crisis management to protect jobs and businesses.”

The remarks came amid concerns that that the DPK's overwhelming parliamentary victory may aggravate the parties' rivalry and hamper cooperative politics as the ruling party has been given the power to pass bills on its own. Regarding criticisms that he does not pay attention to the opposition's views, Moon said, “My administration will always be open to suggestions from the opposition.”

The DPK's election win has been credited to Moon's crisis management of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We would not have had a result like this if it had not been for the high level of public support for Moon,” Lee Nak-yon, head of the DPK's COVID-19 committee, said on YouTube, Friday, two days after the election.

The President's job approval rating has been on the rise despite the national crisis. A latest Realmeter survey released Monday showed that 58 percent thought Moon was doing a good job, up 3.9 percentage points from the previous week. This is the highest figure since the fourth week of October 2018 following his third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un which took place in Pyongyang.