President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday called for renewed efforts to realize his plans for income-led economic growth, highlighting September’s record exports.

“Despite the North Korean nuclear crisis holding back (the economy), the fundamentals of our economy are very healthy and firm,” Moon said at Tuesday’s meeting with his senior aides. In September, South Korea’s exports came to $55.1 billion, rising 35 percent from a year ago.

Calling on the government to work with “confidence and a sense of duty” in raising the country’s economic growth rate, Moon said that the government should focus on making “the benefits of growth go to the people in terms of income.”

Following the meeting, Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Park Soo-hyun revealed that the government would draw up roadmaps for addressing household debt and for the administration’s public sector job creation plans.

Moon plans to create 810,000 new public sector jobs within his term as part of his plans to establish an economic growth model fueled by income.

“It was reported at today’s meeting that (Korea’s) public sector jobs fall short of international levels, and the demand for public services is not being met,” Park said. He added that the need for the public sector to lead efforts to address unemployment problems over the next five years was stressed at the meeting.

According to Park, the public sector accounts for 7.6 percent of Korea’s jobs, while the average for Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development members stands at 13.1 percent.

Park added that related plans would be reviewed in consultation with the related government organizations and would be included in the government’s five-year roadmap for employment.

Park also said that the government is drawing up measures to address the issue of increasing household debt that will be announced by this month. As of June, combined household debt stood at over 1,400 trillion won ($1.2 trillion), fueling concerns that household debt may deal a critical blow to the country’s economy.

At the meeting, Moon also defended his administration’s reform plans, denying accusations that related developments are attacks against the conservatives.

“Reform and removing accumulated wrongs are not surveilling (of opposing political factions), but creating a just Korea and reforming customs that have accumulated across society from powerful (government) organizations, economy and society,” Moon said.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)