2020 things to watch:
KOREA
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Moon’s Progressive Mandate, Interrupted, in South Korea After successfully and safely holding a national parliamentary election in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, South Korean president Moon Jae-in is enjoying high approval ratings as the country’s citizens show their support for his government’s coordinated and organized handling of the COVID-19 crisis. With the elections having significantly expanded his party’s legislative majority, Moon is seeking to pursue an ambitious progressive agenda for the second half of his term while also addressing the economic crisis created by the pandemic. Yet these policy mandates are likely to contradict one another, both substantively and in terms of simple bandwidth: An economic recovery for South Korea would likely require significant support from South Korea’s powerful megacorporations, the chaebol. Yet one of Moon’s top pre-pandemic priorities was to reform South Korea’s economy to reform the chaebol system by reducing the conglomerates’ influence. While the Blue House will likely seek to accomplish all its goals simultaneously, immediate political demands for a rapid economic recovery will probably force Moon to limit his ambitions for domestic economic reform.
Featured Expert:
www.wilsoncenter.org/Koreacenter
Abraham Denmark, Director, Asia Program
KoreaCenter@wilsoncenter.org
Jean H. Lee, Director, Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy Hazel Smith, Fellow, Asia Program Katie Stallard-Blanchette, Fellow, Asia Program 15
@korea_center 202.691.4016
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