Anchor: Marking four years in office on Monday, President Moon Jae-in held a televised news conference, introducing the blueprint for the remaining year of his term. Moon promised a four-percent economic growth and herd immunity against COVID-19 before November, while urging North Korea to return to dialogue. 
In the first of our two-part coverage, Kim Bum-soo tells us about Moon’s economic and coronavirus plans.

Report: With a year remaining in his single term in office, President Moon Jae-in says his focus is now on creating a new future beyond the COVID-19 crisis.

On the economic front, his blueprint calls for achieving a four-percent economic growth. 

[Sound bite: President Moon Jae-in (Korean-English translation)]
"The government will facilitate a faster and stronger economic recovery. The government will be mobilize all of its resources and boost the private sector so that our economy can achieve a four-percent growth for the first time in eleven years. An expansionary fiscal policy will lead economic recovery while bold measures help boost consumption and domestic demand."

While underlining that the public's rigorous compliance with quarantine and social distancing protocols enabled the country's faster-than-expected economic recovery, Moon promised that the government will ensure herd immunity is achieved before November against the pandemic. 

[Sound bite: President Moon Jae-in (Korean-English translation)]
"My fellow Koreans, please endure a little bit longer. We're seeing the start of the end of the war against COVID-19. As we speed up vaccination, we are getting closer to herd immunity. Herd immunity may not end COVID-19, but it will make it a less dangerous disease and we will be able to return to normalcy."

In the wake of the ruling party's crushing defeat in the Seoul and Busan mayoral by-elections last month, Moon admitted that his real estate policies have failed, and job numbers fell victim to the pandemic. 

Despite these setbacks, Moon's approval rating currently stands at 36 percent in a recent poll, which is the highest in comparison to his predecessors at the end of their fourth year in office.

Moon throughout the news conference appeared confident that his administration has faithfully sought to carry out what he described as the "call of the times," saying that historians will be the judge of his legacy.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.