Anchor: President Moon Jae-in addressed the nation for the first time in the new year on Monday, pledging full recovery from COVID-19, social inclusion in the recovery process and helping the nation leap forward in the post-coronavirus era.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: In a televised New Year's address on Monday, President Moon Jae-in said the government will ensure that everyone receives COVID-19 vaccinations free of charge when the country's inoculation program rolls out next month.

The president vowed to exert efforts to quickly end the current third wave of the epidemic, an urgent task in order to return to a world where masks are no longer needed.

Moon also promised a prompt economic recovery and making opportunity out of the crisis to become a global leader in the post-coronavirus era.

He underlined efforts to return the economy to pre-COVID levels within the first half of the year, by implementing an expansionary budget and 110 trillion won in investment initiatives in both the public and private sectors.

Thirty-point-five trillion won will be injected into creating jobs for the most vulnerable in the first quarter. To reduce the socioeconomic gap, social and job safety nets will be strengthened.

For the first time, the president apologized to the people who are weighed down by soaring housing prices. He promised to be decisive in introducing measures, such as increasing the supply, to stabilize the housing market.

Moon expressed his resolve to continue to seek the peace process involving North Korea, making final efforts toward a big transition in the North Korea-U.S. and inter-Korean dialogues, in line with the inauguration of the Joe Biden administration in the U.S.

The president said he was open to talks with the North at any time and anywhere, even virtually amid the COVID-19 pandemic, calling dialogue and cooperation the key momentum in the peace process.

Stressing that there is so much that can be achieved based on inter-Korean cooperation alone, Moon suggested that the two Koreas work together in quarantine and public health efforts to protect the lives and safety of their people.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.