Moon Jae-in Biography

An idealist at heart, Moon Jae-in started working as a human rights lawyer. Over the course of his legal career he became friends with another young lawyer, Roh Moo Hyun. The men often took up cases involving human rights and civil rights issues.

As a former student activist himself, he regularly defended students and labor activists persecuted under the military dictatorship. He was also a member of Minbyun and the Chairman of Human Rights at Busan Bar.

Over the years, Moon’s friend Roh became actively involved in politics. He decided to run for the presidency in 2002 and made Moon his campaign manager during his presidential bid. Roh eventually won.

Upon becoming the president, Roh made Moon his chief of staff and close aide. All this while Moon had been indifferent towards a political career but Roh’s victory changed that and Moon too became active on the political front.

Moon assumed several important roles under the Roh administration. From 2003 to 2004, he served as the Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs, and from May 2004 to January 2005, he was the Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Society, and once again, Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs from January 2005 to May 2006. In August 2007, Moon was made the Chairperson of the Promotion of the 2nd North-South Korea Summit.

Over the ensuing years, Moon intensified his political involvements and earned a reputation for being pro-democratic and anti-corruption. In 2012, he won a seat in the Sasang District of Busan as a member of the Democratic United Party with 55% of the vote.

In September 2012, Moon became the Democratic United Party’s presidential nominee and ran for the 2012 presidential election against Park Geun-hye of the Liberty Korea Party and independent software mogul Ahn Cheol-soo. Moon ultimately lost the election while Park won.

Moon continued to be active on the political front and was elected as the leader of New Politics Alliance for Democracy (now known as the Minjoo Party of Korea) in February 2015. He served in this position for one year.

Meanwhile, the South Korean citizens were growing increasingly disillusioned with the presidency of Park Geun-hye. She was impeached by the National Assembly on charges related to a corruption scandal in December 2016. On 10 March 2017, the impeachment was upheld unanimously by the Constitutional Court and Park was forced out of the president’s office.

Following Park’s impeachment, South Korea had to hold a presidential election within 60 days. Moon ran for the office as the Minjoo Party of Korea's nominee in the 2017 presidential election. He emerged victorious in the election held on 9 May 2017 and was sworn in as the president on May 10.

As President, Moon Jae-in carried out several reforms. He included the benefit coverage expansion in National Health Insurance, opposed efforts to re-implement capital punishment, raised minimum wages, reduced maximum hour work week from 68 hours to 52 hours and made focused efforts to decrease the reliance of South Korea on nuclear and coal energy.

He left the office of President on 9 May 2022 after the completion of his term.