bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

The front runner to succeed South Korea’s impeached president Park Geun-hye after her dismissal over a corruption scandal is a former special forces soldier, pro-democracy activist and human rights lawyer.
The irony is that Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party was once chief of staff to left-leaning president Roh Moo-hyun, who committed suicide in 2009 after being questioned over graft allegations.
Even so, Roh invariably polls as South Korea’s most beloved ex-president, with other former heads of state generally considered much more corrupt.
South Korea must hold a presidential election within 60 days and Moon, a former Democratic Party leader narrowly beaten by Park in 2012, has long been leading the polls.
Watch: South Korea’s Park Geun-hye removed from office


A Realmeter survey this week put him on 36.1 per cent, with his nearest rival, acting president Hwang Kyo-ahn trailing far behind at 14.2 per cent.
“He is a liberal champion with good chances of winning the next presidential election,” Park Kie-duck, former head of the private Sejong Institute said.
The 64-year-old has promised to curb the concentration of economic power in the hands of the chaebol, the family-oriented business groups whose ties to government have been exposed in the wide-ranging scandal that saw Park impeached.
But the analyst sounded a warning: “He lacks political acumen. He is too soft to cope with the dirty games in realpolitik.”

According to conservative critics, Moon is also too soft towards North Korea.
Nuclear-armed Pyongyang launched a flight of four missiles towards Japan this week in what it said was a drill for an attack on US bases in the country.
But in December Moon said that if elected, he was willing to visit North Korea ahead of the US, the South’s security guarantor.
‘I’m sorry’: former UN chief Ban Ki-moon won’t run for South Korea presidency
Facing criticism, he said he meant defusing tensions with the North was an issue of utmost urgency.
A US missile defence system, THAAD, is being deployed to the South in the face of threats from the North, infuriating Beijing, which has imposed a series of measures seen as economic retaliation.

Moon was ambivalent about the issue this week, saying it needed to be carefully handled as it would bring the South “both gains and losses”. He has previously said that his country should reconsider plans to deploy the US missile defence system. But his military service as a paratrooper adds to his credentials.
Moon was born in the southern island of Geoje in 1952 during the Korean war after his North Korean parents fled to the South.
His father was a menial worker at a prisoner-of-war camp in Geoje while his mother peddled eggs in the nearby port city of Busan, with the baby Moon strapped to her back, the politician wrote in his autobiography.

He entered law school in Seoul in 1972 but was arrested and expelled for leading a student protest against the authoritarian rule of dictator Park Chung-hee - the ousted president’s father.
Moon returned to school in 1980 only to be arrested again.
Why do Koreans elect such awful leaders?
His close friendship with future president Roh began in 1982 when they opened a law firm in Busan focusing on human and civil rights issues.
Both became leading figures in the pro-democracy protests that swept the country in 1987 and led to South Korea’s first direct presidential elections the same year.
When Roh entered politics, Moon continued with his legal practice in Busan, defending students and workers arrested for leading protests and labour strikes.

“I was always happy due to the fact that I was able to help others with what I had been trained to do,” he said in his autobiography.
But a year after Roh’s unexpected election victory in 2002, Moon joined the administration as a presidential aide, tasked with weeding out official corruption and screening candidates for top government posts, before rising to become his chief of staff.
Despite the scandal that led to his mentor killing himself by jumping off a cliff, said Kang Won-taek, a political science professor at Seoul National University, Moon “always remained untainted by corruption allegations and abuse of power”.


Yoon on trial: what’s at stake in largest special investigation in South Korean history?

Martial law, memes and mayhem: the rise and fall of South Korea’s Yoon Suk-yeol

How South Korea’s president Yoon could be impeached

In South Korea, Samsung billionaire Lee Jae-yong acquitted in succession suit related to 2015 merger

Park Geun-hye

Moon Jae-in could become South Korea’s next leader.  But is he too soft for the job?

South Korea presidential candidate Moon Jae-in. File photo: AFP

epa05822145 Moon Jae-in (C), former head of the Democratic Party who stands as the front-runner in the next presidential election, waves the national flag of South Korea during the March 1st Independence Movement Day anniversary in Seoul, South Korea, 01 March 2017. EPA/YONHAP SOUTH KOREA OUT

Supporters of South Korea's impeached-President Park Geun-Hye cry during a rally opposing the impeachment in Seoul on March 11, 2017. South Korean President Park Geun-Hye was fired on March 10 as a court upheld her impeachment over a corruption scandal that has paralysed the nation at a time of mounting tensions in East Asia. / AFP PHOTO / JUNG Yeon-Je

epa05828252 Moon Jae-in, former head of the Democratic Party, who is also a potential presidential candidate, takes a photo with citizens in Daejeon, central South Korea, 04 March 2017. EPA/YONHAP SOUTH KOREA OUT

(FILES) This file photo taken on December 15, 2012 shows South Korea's presidential candidate Moon Jae-In of opposition Democratic United Party speaking during his election campaign in Seoul. South Korean President Park Geun-Hye was fired by the country's top court on March 10, 2017, as it upheld her impeachment by parliament over a wide-ranging corruption scandal. The unanimous decision brought months of political turmoil to a climax and triggers a new presidential election, to be held within 60 days. The current front-runner, by a distance, is Moon Jae-In, former leader of the opposition Democratic Party. / AFP PHOTO / JUNG Yeon-Je

The rise and fall of Park Geun-hye, Korea’s ‘Jackie Onassis’

Park Geun-hye, the country’s first female president, has become its first president to be removed from office by impeachment. Photo: AFP

An anti-government activist (R) weariung a mask of South Korea's President Park Geun-Hye march toward the presidential Blue House after the announcement of the Constitutional Court's decision to uphold the impeachment of Park in Seoul on March 10, 2017. South Korean President Park Geun-Hye was fired by the country's top court on March 10, as it upheld her impeachment by parliament over a wide-ranging corruption scandal. / AFP PHOTO / JUNG Yeon-Je

People look at the presidential Blue House (C) after the announcement of the Constitutional Court over the impeachment of South Korea's President Park Geun-Hye in Seoul on March 10, 2017. South Korean President Park Geun-Hye was fired on March 10 as a court upheld her impeachment over a corruption scandal that has paralysed the nation at a time of mounting tensions in East Asia. / AFP PHOTO / JUNG Yeon-Je

South Korea's Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-Ahn delivers a public address at the government complex in Seoul on March 10, 2017 after the announcement of the Constitutional Court over the impeachment of South Korea's President Park Geun-Hye. South Korean President Park Geun-Hye was fired on March 10 as a court upheld her impeachment over a corruption scandal that has paralysed the nation at a time of mounting tensions in East Asia. / AFP PHOTO / YONHAP / str / South Korea OUT / NO ARCHIVES RESTRICTED TO SUBSCRIPTION US

Park’s removal from power has sparked clashes in Seoul. Photo: AFP

South Korea's acting Constitutional Court's Chief Judge Lee Jung-mi (C) and seven judges are seen during the final ruling regarding President Park Geun-hye's impeachment at the Constitutional Court in Seoul on March 10, 2017. South Korean President Park Geun-Hye was fired by the country's top court on March 10, as it upheld her impeachment by parliament over a wide-ranging corruption scandal. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / Kim Min-Hee

People read an extra edition of a South Korean newspaper reporting on the impeachment of South Korea's President Park Geun-Hye in Seoul on March 10, 2017. South Korean President Park Geun-Hye was fired on March 10 as a court upheld her impeachment over a corruption scandal that has paralysed the nation at a time of mounting tensions in East Asia. / AFP PHOTO / JUNG Yeon-Je

News

Asia

East Asia