Moon Jae-in becomes President of South Korea

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Moon Jae-in assumed the office of President of South Korea yesterday. He was announced the winner of Tuesday's election, with 41.1% of the vote, and sworn in yesterday at the Korean National Assembly. Moon is succeeding the impeached President Park Geun-hye.

Moon has promised to unite his country, which faces tensions due to the corruption scandals of the previous president. He has also vowed to promote peace between the two Koreas. One way Moon is attempting to improve the relationship between South Korea and North Korea is by reopening the Kaesong Industrial Region, an industrial park on the Korean border jointly run by both Koreas. Moon also wishes to reform chaebol, a type of conglomerate run by powerful families. An example of a chaebol is Samsung, whose vice-chariman Lee Jae-yong was arrested for allegations of bribery under the previous president Park Guen-hye.

In more international affairs, Moon has said he is reconsidering the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) deployments of the United States, as he believes they could damage relations with China.

Moon's parents were North Korean refugees. He worked as a human rights lawyer after serving in the South Korean special forces.

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Sources

"South Korea's Moon Jae-in sworn in vowing to address North" — BBC News Online, May 10, 2017
Kim Tong-Hyung (AP). "South Korea's new president is already making big moves — including reconsidering the US anti-missile system" — Business Insider, May 10, 2017

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Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

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Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.