Moon Jae-in, a lawyer-turned-liberal politician, won South Korea's May 9 presidential election in a landslide. The following are some of his key campaign pledges. -- Ed. 

The first liberal to take the presidency in South Korea in a decade, Moon Jae-in vows to take a new initiative in global efforts to denuclearize North Korea.

In an interview with The Korea Herald before his election Tuesday, the then-candidate lamented how Seoul has taken a backseat in a matter of its own survival, vowing to take the initiative.

His pledges on North Korean issues are in essence a “step-by-step, comprehensive approach” that encompasses sanctions and negotiations for denuclearization. It is designed to start with a moratorium on all nuclear activities and then progress to a complete closure of the program that would also be accompanied by an inter-Korean military mechanism and peace treaty. 

Public sector-driven job creation

Moon has put job creation as a top priority in his economic pledges, as the South Korean economy suffers a high youth unemployment rate, long working hours, wage gaps between conglomerates and small firms and discrimination against irregular workers.

He vowed to create 810,000 jobs in the public sector, starting from 12,000 jobs in the civil service in the second half of this year. His camp said Moon planned to create 174,000 civil service positions in national security and public safety, 340,000 in social services and convert 300,000 irregular workers to permanent employees.

“Only 2 percent pass the civil service exam and the other 98 percent fail. I will open that door wider. I will help jobs in the public sector produce more jobs in the private sector,” Moon said during a TV speech on SBS, Sunday.

 

Four-year, double-term presidency

Moon’s blueprint on constitutional revision is to alter the current five-year, single-term presidency to a four-year, double-term one -- and to have the nation vote on the change within next year.

But compared to his election rivals who came up with more radical plans, the liberal front-runner has not been as active in altering the nation’s Constitution.

“It is appropriate that the next presidential election should be held in the year 2022, along with local elections (not the parliamentary election in 2020),” Moon said in April, elucidating his view on a constitutional amendment.

For this, he suggested the legislature should pass a revision bill by early next year so as to hold a national referendum on the revised Constitution with the June local elections.

Moon also gestured at reaching out to the centrist People’s Party and progressive Justice Party in the incoming administration.

As for a more extensive relocation of Seoul’s political and administrative functions to Sejong, Moon said such change should be included in the constitutional revision process, as the decision requires public consensus.

Standing at odds with Moon was his centrist rival Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party, who had called for an immediate amendment including the plan to officially promote Sejong as the nation‘s administrative capital.

Expanded welfare

Moon has focused on improving the social safety net by increasing government spending and tackling the low birthrate in the face of an aging population.

To encourage people to get married, he vowed to generate quality jobs and provide state-run accommodation to newlyweds. To curb the financial burden on raising children, he promised to expand state-run day care centers, set up “village schools” to take care of children during the day while their parents are at work, extend parental leave and double the leave pay.

According to the CIA’s World Factbook released in March, the country’s total fertility rate, or the average number of babies that a woman is projected to have during her lifetime, stood at 1.25, the fifth lowest in the world.

Moon also promised financial subsidies for Koreans of all age groups. He vowed to offer monthly subsidies worth 100,000 won ($88) to parents with a child aged up to 5 years old, 300,000 won for up to 8 months to unemployed young people aged 18 to 34 and 300,000 won to the elderly aged 65 or older in the bottom 70 percent of the income bracket.

Moon said he would improve medical care and expand insurance coverage for using hospital facilities. There would be a system in place to take responsibility for dementia patients from diagnosis to treatment, according to his election pledges.

“I will implement a tailored welfare system guaranteeing basic income corresponding to people’s lifecycle,” Moon said during a televised debate on MBC. 

Big government for education

Moon stresses the role of the government in child care and education. His education reform plan is based on the idea of providing fair opportunities for all, and he seeks to reduce household spending on private education by reinforcing public education.

While tuition for elementary and middle school are currently covered by the government, Moon pledged to expand the plan to provide free education for preschool and high school as well.

For school reform, Moon sought to redirect the current academic-oriented education to provide more diversified learning choices for students. Calling it “DIY” education, he pledged to reduce the number of mandatory subjects while increasing electives, and to allow students to choose their subjects of interest. He believes this will give them a chance to delve further into skills that could later lead to their future jobs.

Middle and high school students would also be able to take a semester off, similar to university students.

Moon also plans to simplify college admissions to reflect the students’ school transcripts, grades and test scores. Moon maintains that having too many ways to enter university only increases the burden of providing private education.

By Korea Herald staff (khnews@heraldcorp.com)