The Peninsula

Moon Vows to Become a “President of All People,” but Faces a Nation Divided

By Gwanghyun Pyun

Moon Vows to Eradicate “Deep Rooted Evils” of Previous Administrations

An unexpected early presidential election was held on May 9 in South Korea. This election was the result of the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye. The election was won by Moon Jae-In, who strongly argued for eradicating ‘deep rooted evils”’ in Korean society, referring to the turmoil from the former President Park. Moon largely won the support of those who protested against the Park administration, and during his campaign he praised the “candle sentiment” of the people who took to the streets with candles to protest. But while he was supported by those who protested against the administration, how will his policies tackle the issues they stood up for?

In Moon and the Minjoo Party’s official pledge book, his first pledge out of twelve is for there to be a ‘Republic of Korea without corruption,’ including the ‘eradication of deep rooted evils’ as its primary agenda. It specifically promises that the next administration would eradicate the deep rooted evils that resulted from the nine years of the former two conservative administrations. This means that his strategy during the election focused on criticizing the previous two  presidents to gain the support of those who took part in the candlelight protests. According to a poll by Gallup Korea, the reasons people voted for Moon were the “eradication of deep rooted evils” (20 percent), “regime change” (17 percent) and Moon’s “good personality” (14 percent).

A Republic of Korea where people are sovereign by finishing the candlelight revolution

Moon and the Minjoo Party decided to begin his list of  four visions for Korea with a vision of “finishing the candlelight revolution, a Republic of Korea where people are sovereign.” It suggests that during the nine years of the two former administrations, Korean society has belonged to the 1 percent of people who have vested interests in the system such as bureaucrats, the chaebol and the rich. Moon insisted during the campaign that finishing the candle revolution would bring a society where all the people are sovereign.

As the first pledge, Moon made promises to take Korean society back from the 1 percent. To do this, his administration will set up a special committee for clearing out deep rooted corruption and confiscating any wealth accumulated by illicit means. While he spoke out against the meddling in state affairs by Choi Soon-sil, a friend of the former president Park closely tied with the scandal that led to hear impeachment, Moon also promised to reform corruption among high-ranking bureaucrats, to remove the blacklist of cultural figures who supported left-wing causes, and to negate the state authored history textbooks made under the Park’s administration.

At the same time, Moon pointed out what he thinks is the fundamental reason why a small number of people have too much power –  the Korean constitution made in 1987 is outdated. Because this constitution has given prior leaders imperial presidential power, he said, Korea needs constitutional revisions to ensure balance between the presidency and the National Assembly.

The 58.6 percent who did not vote for the President Moon

Since he has focused on giving power back to the people, Moon needs to be aware of the views of the 58.6 percent of people who did not vote for him. Considering the fact that Moon’s first vision and pledges are about fixing faults from the last nine years, it seems that his victory  is more about the perceived wrongs committed by the prior two administrations than his policies on security and the economy.

During the election, Moon had two main rivals – the conservative Hong Joon-pyo and the centrist Ahn Cheol-soo, who won 23.3 percent and 21.8 percent of the vote respectively.  He also faced two minor opponents in the center-right Yoo Seung-min and the left Shim Sang-jung, who won 6.8 percent and 6.4 percent respectively.

Excluding the topic of cleaning up corruption, Korean publics opinion on other policies are polarized. Especially in terms of security policy, the three other candidates who collectively won 52.9 percent  offered a different vision for dealing with North Korea than Moon’s pledge  to inherit the ‘Sunshine policy’ that pushed for a close relationship between South and North Korea during the liberal administrations of 1998 to 2008.

The two conservative candidates, Hong and Yoo, insisted that Seoul needs to maintain a hardline stance against the North, including deploying tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea. The main candidate, Ahn, said that without North’s denuclearization first, there cannot be any cooperation with North Korea. Furthermore, these three candidates support the deployment of THAAD, while Moon argued that the THAAD deployment decision should be left to the new administration.

When it comes to economic policy, Moon insisted that the government should lead the creation of job opportunities, and has set a target for creating 810,000 new jobs in the public sector. In contrast, his three main rivals argued that private sector should lead job creation and criticized Moon for having no proper plan to budget for the 810,000 jobs he wants to create.

But while Moon Jae-in may face these splits on economic and security policy, particularly among those who did not vote for him, he has acknowledged the need to bridge divides. In his inaugural address, Moon said “I will become a president of all people. Each person who did not support me will still be my people and I will serve them as such,” highlighting the nation’s integration. It will be an important task for him to address the faults of past, but he must also work to overcome the current divisions in society and bring the nation together.

Gwanghyun Pyun is currently an Intern at the Korea Economic Institute of America as part of the Asan Academy Fellowship Program. He is also a student of Sogang University in South Korea. The views expressed here are the author’s alone.

Photo from Republic of Korea’s photostream on flickr Creative Commons.