Launch of Moon Jae-in Gov’t

The Moon Jae-in government launched following an early presidential election held in May after former President Park Geun-hye was removed from office. Park was ousted after being impeached for her involvement in a major influence-peddling scandal and a series of anti-government candlelight vigils were held.

Moon Jae-in was picked as the presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, which became the largest party in the National Assembly through its victory in the 2016 general elections.

The Saenuri Party, which was the ruling party at the time, became mired in serious internal strife and some of its lawmakers who had pushed for former President Park’s impeachment withdrew their memberships and went on to create the Bareun Party. Yoo Seong-min was picked to represent the Bareun Party in the presidential race. The Saenuri Party, on its part, changed its name to the Liberty Korea Party and picked Hong Joon-pyo as its presidential candidate.


Meanwhile, the People’s Party, which became the nation’s third largest party through the last general elections, selected Ahn Cheol-soo, for the presidential race. From the minor Justice Party, Sim Sang-jeong emerged as a candidate.

The 19th presidential election ended with Moon gaining 41 percent of the votes cast, beating Hong who garnered 24 percent. Ahn came in third with 21 percent followed by Yoo and Sim.

Moon called himself a president born from a candlelit revolution and stressed that South Korea’s democracy is evolving toward the complete realization of the sovereignty of the people.

Photo : Yonhap News, KBS News

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