Moon Jae-in

Moon Jae-in (문재인) is a South Korean lawyer and politician who served as President of the Republic of Korea from 10 May 2017 to 10 May 2022. A former human rights attorney and chief of staff to President Roh Moo-hyun, he led the liberal Democratic Party (더불어민주당) and was elected in a snap election following the impeachment and removal of Park Geun-hye.

Moon's presidency is most associated with his engagement policy toward North Korea, often described as a revival of the earlier "Sunshine Policy" tradition. In 2018 he held three summits with Kim Jong Un: at Panmunjom on 27 April 2018 (producing the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula), again at Panmunjom on 26 May 2018, and in Pyongyang in September 2018 (yielding the Pyongyang Joint Declaration and an inter-Korean military agreement). He also facilitated the Singapore and Hanoi summits between Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Other notable foreign-policy episodes included:

• A trade and historical dispute with Japan beginning in 2019, triggered by South Korean Supreme Court rulings on wartime forced labor and Japan's subsequent export controls on semiconductor materials.
• Managing the THAAD missile-defense deployment and associated friction with China.
• Navigating the COVID-19 pandemic response, which initially boosted his administration's standing.

Domestically, Moon pursued an "income-led growth" economic agenda, raised the minimum wage sharply, pushed prosecutorial reform, and announced a long-term nuclear phase-out plan. His approval declined in his final year amid housing-price increases and political scandals, and he was succeeded by conservative Yoon Suk Yeol of the People Power Party after the March 2022 election.

Born in 1953 to parents who were refugees from Hungnam in what is now North Korea, Moon previously ran for president in 2012, losing narrowly to Park Geun-hye.