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| President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook wave to Cheong Wa Dae officials and the public as they leave the presidential office, Monday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk |
Social division, housing policy failures overshadow Moon's term
By Nam Hyun-woo
Wrapping up his five-year tenure, President Moon Jae-in bid farewell to citizens. Throughout his presidency, the liberal president enjoyed a relatively high job approval rating, hovering over 40 percent.
But he ironically allowed the conservative bloc to take power in just five years, showing that public opinion of his leadership is divided sharply. His leadership had faced various challenges, including the coronavirus pandemic, worsened public opinion from soaring housing prices and North Korea's unpredictable tantrums.
During his farewell speech, Moon said South Korea has become one of the leading countries in the world, and that he was privileged to have served the people.
"I am laying down the heavy burden of the presidency from my shoulders," Moon said. "The past five years have been a time of overcoming a national crisis in the turbulence of international history. Despite difficulties, the people of the country have united to face challenges, and the country became stronger and made greater achievements."
He added, "South Korea is now an advanced country which leads international society. And I am very proud of serving the great people."
Moon started his presidency on May 10, 2017, after his predecessor Park Geun-hye was impeached over a massive corruption scandal.
Before he took office, huge candlelit rallies continued throughout the winter of 2016, which garnered international attention as a peaceful and lawful way of ousting an incumbent president. Buoyed by the disappointment over Park and the conservative bloc, Moon became president by garnering a 41.08 percent vote and started his presidency with a whopping 84 percent approval rating, which was the highest ever for a new South Korean president.
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| President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un shake hands at the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom during an inter-Korean summit held in April 2018. Korea Times file |
The momentum continued when the inter-Korean peace mood was at its peak after Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, visited the South on the occasion of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games in Gangwon Province. Their meeting at the Games resulted in a series of inter-Korean and U.S.-North Korea summits.
The talks, however, did not result in fundamental changes to inter-Korean relations. Pyongyang has repeated its old habit recently of brinkmanship by test-firing its missiles, causing cross-border relations to deteriorate to levels seen before Moon's presidency.
"We could not make further steps forward, but it was not just a lack of commitments and efforts," Moon said during his farewell speech. "There have been obstacles that we could not overcome with only our commitment. And those obstacles are what we have to overcome."
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| President Moon Jae-in and President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol enter Sangchunjae pavilion for a dinner at Cheong Wa Dae, March 28. Korea Times photo by Wang Tae-seog |
Cho Kuk and prosecution
Moon's presidency was put to the test with his Cabinet nominations.
He named law professor Cho Kuk as the first senior presidential secretary for civil affairs for his administration in 2017. It was the first time in 10 years that a person who has not served as a prosecutor was appointed to that position.
Under Cho's drive, some of the prosecution's investigative authority was transferred to the police, despite strong opposition from the prosecution and the main opposition party.
Their conflict exploded when Moon nominated Cho as minister of justice in 2019, and Cho and his family were caught up in corruption scandals.
The conflict continued even after Cho left the job in disgrace, as his successor, Choo Mi-ae, also continued the efforts to reform the prosecution. In this process, then-Prosecutor General Yoon Suk-yeol locked horns with Choo and even Moon, which helped Yoon become the standard bearer of the opposition bloc and win the presidential election in March this year.
Even though the election ended in the opposition bloc's victory, Moon and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) pressed on with the reform, with the president signing bills to limit prosecutors' investigative powers into law during his final Cabinet meeting last week. During this process, however, Moon and the DPK faced harsh criticism for pushing through with the reforms unilaterally, casting uncertainties over the role of prosecutors in the incoming Yoon administration.
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| President Moon Jae-in looks into a microscope during his visit to SK Bioscience in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Aug. 10, 2021. Yonhap |
Pandemic and 'K-quarantine'
The latter half of Moon's presidency has been a battle with COVID-19.
After reporting the country's first patient in January 2020, Korea operated a strong tracing and monitoring system and controlled the virus spread in a stable manner for the first few months. This attracted international attention for the country's diagnosis, quarantine and social distancing measures, and the Moon administration coined the term "K-quarantine" to promote its achievements.
"As the world suffers from COVID-19, it turned out that South Korea was one of the countries leading the response to the pandemic," Moon said. "Many people who have thought that Koreans were lagging behind have rediscovered themselves and gained self-esteem."
However, public sentiment turned against the government as the country was relatively slow in securing vaccines. This was aggravated further as the number of patients skyrocketed and the government once again tightened COVID-19 restrictions in the wake of the Omicron variant.
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| Realtors' offices are seen in Seoul in this April 11 file photo. Yonhap |
Economy and real estate
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| President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook leave Cheong Wa Dae, Monday, wrapping up Moon's five-year presidency. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
"It was an unforgettable moment that Koreans made efforts together to overcome the crisis stemming from Japan's unfair export restrictions," Moon said. "We exploited the restrictions as an opportunity to achieve industrial independence in materials, parts and equipment, and this resulted in the improvement of Korea's industrial capability. Korea logged a record high in its exports amid the global economic slowdown stemming from COVID-19, and this was possible because of the strengthened industrial competence."
The country's industries strengthened their global presence during Moon's tenure, but soaring housing prices in Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi Province have become among the main reasons enticing people to vote for the opposition side.
During Moon's tenure, the government churned out more than 20 rounds of large-scale real estate policies ― mostly focused on stronger regulations on mortgages and renewals ― to stabilize the market, but failed to see a desirable outcome.
