S Korean Prez for country where ‘common sense’ prevails

South Korea’s new President Moon Jae-in has vowed to build a country where ‘Justice rules and common sense prevails’. Sworn in on Wednesday hours after the country’s Election Commission confirmed his convincing victory in the Presidential poll, Moon is a left-leaning liberal who famously said that his country would have to learn to say ‘no’ to Washington.

The Human Rights lawyer and former minister under his friend and former law firm partner Roh Moo Hyun, who became President in 2003 but committed suicide in 2009 after a corruption scandal, Moon is known to favour talks with North Korea and is passionate about re-unification.

This has led observers to predict tension in South Korea-US relations with President Trump seen as keen for a confrontation with North Korea. When the US rushed to instal a missile defence system in a South Korean village last month, Moon had been critical and had promised to review the decision if he got elected.

Aware that his primary task is to unite the country and put a healing touch, he has declared that he would be everyone’s President, reaching out to his conservative opponents.

Left-leaning Moon is the son of a refugee couple who fled North Korea during the Korean war. While his mother sold eggs in the market to earn a living, young Moon’s education was disrupted by his involvement in the pro-democracy movement in South Korea. He completed his Bar examination after he came out of prison and set up a law firm with Roh Moo Hyun.

The pro-democracy movement led to South Korea’s first democratic election in 1987 and 30 years later, Moon has been elected President.

Earlier this year he wrote a book in which he candidly spoke of his dream to unite North and South Korea. He would like to take his mother to visit her hometown in North Korea and unite her with her relatives. He himself would like nothing better than to retire and do pro-bono work as a lawyer, he had written.

Observers believe that the immediate impact of his election will be a welcome reduction of tension between North Korea and South Korea. Working level talks between the two countries, favoured by China, also appears a distinct possibility. The Guardian reported that Moon also favours the reopening of an industrial complex, a joint North-South project, which was ‘temporarily’ shut down early last year.