An election for the president of the Republic of Korea happened on May 9, 2017, and Moon Jae-in was elected as president. He was elected by a poll rate of 41.1 percent. There were five major candidates in this election. Moon Jae-in, however, was overwhelmingly with high approval ratings.

Moon Jae-in has many promises, but ten of them are the greatest. The first one is job expansion. Youth unemployment is really serious these days. Therefore, he promised to expand opportunities of job seekers. The second one is the reform of political power and power agencies. He promised to eliminate corruption among high-level officials. Third, chaebol reform will be made. They will set up a special committee to prevent chaebol from decaying. The fourth one is the strengthening of the alliance between South Korea and United States and securing self-reliant defense capabilities. Recently, it seems that North Korea's provocation is an important part of the worsening situation. The fifth one is to make a powerful country for young people. He pledged to increase the minimum hourly wage to 10,000 won and increase government officials` commitment.

Sixth, he promised to resolve sexual discrimination. Although gender discrimination is decreasing these days, there are still many issues. He said that he will resolve the issue through strengthening the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. Seventh, he promised to strengthen welfare for the elderly. Since the aging era is becoming an aging society, there is a need for a large number of elderly welfare facilities. He is also planning to increase national pension funds. Eighth, he is planning to promote childbirth. It is a necessary policy because the low birthrate is escalating. The government will implement policies to increase paternity leave and ease private education concerns. For the ninth, self-employed people will pursue policies to save business owners and minorities. It will limit the shopping mall and implement policies for small traders. Lastly, it will build a safe and healthy country. Since the fine dust is emerging as a serious problem, it is said that it will reduce the amount of particulate matter emissions and scrap old nuclear power plants.

I do not know if all these pledges will be upheld, but all expectations and good policies of the new president is going to be implemented correctly. I hope to see the Republic of Korea gradually evolving through new politics, breaking away from previous politics.

May 31st by Park Seong-uck