Home > Opinion > Columns

Is Korea Heading Toward Moon Jae-in Season Two?

Published: 02 Oct. 2025, 00:02

Kim Jung-ha

The author is an editorial writer at the JoongAng Ilbo.

During his presidential campaign, President Lee Jae Myung worked hard to project an image of pragmatic centrism. He frequently emphasized business and growth, and he brought in figures from conservative backgrounds to showcase his ideological flexibility.

Though he rarely said it outright, it is likely that he had the Moon Jae-in administration in mind. Moon’s presidency, which once spoke confidently of 20 years of Democratic Party rule and enjoyed overwhelming approval, collapsed swiftly under political arrogance and ideological excess. Lee appeared determined not to repeat that mistake.

Yet since taking office, his administration has increasingly resembled Moon’s; at this pace, critics may have grounds to call it a second Moon Jae-in government. The politics of “liquidation” is one example. Moon invoked the slogan of “eradicating deep-rooted evils” in the wake of the Choi Soon-sil scandal, and extended its reach to punish the entire conservative bloc. This effort culminated in the jailing of former president Lee Myung-bak, framed as a form of narrative revenge. Today, Democratic Party leaders openly pursue “eradicating rebellion,” a campaign that aims not only to punish those involved in past martial law schemes, but also to break the People Power Party as a whole.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (left) walks with U.S. President Donald Trump (center) and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (right) toward the inter-Korean border after a meeting at the Freedom House on the South Korean side of Panmunjom on June 30, 2019. [YONHAP]

Bipartisan cooperation has become little more than a slogan. The ruling party, with its majority, now drives its agenda unilaterally. Moon’s administration broke longstanding parliamentary traditions such as revising election law only through bipartisan agreement, or splitting the speakership and Judiciary Committee chairmanship between ruling and opposition parties. Today, the Democratic Party has gone further, pushing through contentious bills such as the "Yellow Envelope Bill" and amendments to the Commercial Act on its own. It is even undermining the principle of separation of powers by pressing the Supreme Court chief justice to appear before lawmakers.

Housing policy also shows this trend. Over five years, Moon’s government announced 28 measures, mostly centered on suppressing demand and expanding public rental housing. Lee’s June 27 plan capped home mortgage loans at 600 million won, while the Sept. 7 plan expanded public housing supply through the state-run Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH). Both are near replicas of Moon’s policies. To claim that LH could stabilize apartment prices in Seoul is implausible — expanding private-sector supply remains the only viable solution, yet Lee’s directive for harsher penalties on industrial accidents has already made construction firms wary. With supply already scarce, the government now risks worsening the shortage.

The Democratic Party has historically been reluctant to encourage large apartment complexes. Kim Soo-hyun, the Blue House policy chief under Moon and architect of housing policy, once said that when multifamily or low-rise units are redeveloped into apartments, voter preferences shift dramatically. Homeowners in new apartments, he argued, tend to lean conservative. Few Democratic lawmakers therefore welcome redevelopment in their own districts.

This explains the party’s consistent preference for public rentals — and why Lee’s government remains within the same limits. If public rentals are to truly stabilize prices, senior officials should set an example by selling their own apartments and moving into rental units. However, such gestures have never been seen.

The government announced on Sept. 7 plans to launch 270,000 new housing units annually in the Seoul metropolitan area through 2030 to address supply shortages. The Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) will speed up supply by directly developing housing sites instead of selling them to private builders, while aging facilities and idle land will be utilized to expand urban housing preferred by buyers. The photo shows apartment complexes in Seoul viewed from Mount Namsan on the same day. [YONHAP]

Energy policy reveals a similar story. One of Moon’s most controversial choices was his nuclear phaseout. Lee recently stated that building new reactors takes 15 years, and that renewable energy should be expanded instead, setting off alarms in the nuclear industry. If his administration cancels further nuclear projects, the industry ecosystem, only recently revived, could collapse again. In other areas, from welfare spending through higher taxes to an emphasis on U.S.-North Korea summits, the pattern is also similar. The main visible difference so far lies in diplomacy with Japan. But even there, the strong anti-Japanese sentiment among Lee’s hard-line supporters, often referred to as “gaeddal” — a nickname originating from “daughters of reform,” now widely used as a pejorative for his most fervent base — could force policy shifts in time.

In his inaugural address, Lee declared that his government would be a “pragmatic market-oriented government.” Many citizens hoped this meant a clear departure from Moon. Four months later, however, his administration looks less like a centrist experiment, and more like a continuation of Moon’s path.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.