Moon Jae-in raises his hand with Choo Mi-ae, head of the main opposition Democratic Party after he won a primary to become the party's presidential candidate at a stadium on April 3. [Yonhap News Photo]
In a speech Monday to mark his nomination as the presidential candidate of the main opposition Democratic Party, Moon said that if elected, he would work for economic prosperity and security while eradicating injustice and corruption.
"I now declare that South Korea should end the era of division and conflict," he said, promising to put emphasis on "national interests" ahead of ideology. "The dichotomy of dividing the right and left in this land should be dumped into a trash can."
Moon Jae-in (left) and the former liberal president Roh Moo-hyun (right). [Moon Jae-in's official website]
Moon, 64, said the May 9 election to pick the successor of South Korea's ousted president Park Geun-hye should not become a confrontation between conservative and liberal voters but "a choice of justice or injustice". "Certainly, I will eradicate unfairness, injustice, corruption and inequality."
With no strong challengers as yet, Moon is favored to win the election as conservative voters remain split or undecided due to a corruption scandal that led to Park's impeachment. His approval rating has ranged between 29 to 36 percent, far ahead of Ahn Cheol-soo of the People's Party, a conservative opposition group, and other presidential hopefuls.
Moon's rising popularity owes much to the scandal that fanned anti-government sentiment, although he used to have an ill-fated relationship with the authoritarian leadership of Park's late father, Park Chung-hee, a former general who seized power in a military coup in 1961.
The Personal relationship between the late president Roh Moo-hyun (right) and Moon Jae-in (left) date back to the early 1980s. [Moon Jae-in's official website]
Moon was born on January 24, 1953, in Geoje Island, as the first son of a peasant refugee who fled his hometown in North Korea's northeastern port of Heungnam. After his family settled in Busan, Moon majored in law at Seoul's Kyunghee University. He was arrested in 1975 and expelled from the university for leading anti-government protests.
Park's father, assassinated in 1979 by his intelligence chief, was credited with pioneering South Korea's rapid industrialization. At the same time, he was criticized for the brutal suppression of democracy under his 18-year rule.
Like other student protesters, Moon was drafted into the army at the time and passed the bar exam after his discharge in 1980. Despite his good academic record at a state-run judicial training center, he could not realize his dream of becoming a judge because of campus activism.
Moon, a Roman Catholic, shares his political philosophy with Roh because they worked together as liberal lawyers to take human rights cases involving students and labor activists.
Moon made his political debut as Roh's campaign manager during a presidential race in 2002. Serving as the chief presidential aide, he was considered Roh's most trusted confidant until the ill-fated ex-president committed suicide by jumping from a mountain cliff behind his home in May 2009 following a humiliating probe by state prosecutors into alleged corruption involving his family.
Moon Jae-in walks alongside the tombstone of the late president Roh Moo-hyun. [Moon Jae-in's official website]
The suicide prompted Moon to begin his new life as a leading opposition politician who ran in a presidential race in 2012 only to lose against Park. Since Park took office in early 2013 as South Korea's first female president, Moon has bolstered his presidential bid with widespread support from young voters.
Moon portrays himself as a moderate and rational figure but opponents often likened him to Roh, who advocated cross-border reconciliation and anti-US nationalism at the expense of traditional ties with the United States, triggering a strong backlash from conservative groups including Park's.
While working as Roh's political soul mate, Moon lost ten teeth due to stress and received implants. The thing he cherishes is a pendulum clock presented by Roh to celebrate the opening of his law office, and his most pleasant moment is when Roh won a presidential election.
As the father of a son and a daughter, Moon's personal dream is to visit the hometown of his father. He respects former US president Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) and describes excessive seriousness and lack of caution as personality traits.l
Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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