Moon Jae In

Moon Jae-in is the 12th and current President of South Korea, in office since May 10, 2017. Prior to running for the presidency, he had served as the opposition leader of the Minjoo Party of Korea from 2015 to 2016. Before that, he had participated as the Democratic United Party's candidate in the 2012 presidential election which he narrowly lost. A lawyer by profession, he became acquainted with the future President, Roh Moo Hyun, over the course of his legal career and started working with him. Along with Roh, also a lawyer, Moon often took up cases involving human rights and civil rights issues. When Roh ran for presidency, Moon became his campaign manager. Upon his victory, Roh installed Moon as his chief of staff. Though initially indifferent to politics, Moon soon became heavily involved in the national political scenario and a few years later, he received the presidential nomination for the Democratic United Party for the 2012 presidential election. Even though he lost the election, he remained actively involved in politics. Following the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye in December 2016, Moon had been considered the frontrunner to win Korea's next presidential election. As a nominee of the Minjoo Party, Moon defeated Hong Jun-pyo of Liberty Korea and Ahn Cheol-soo of People’s Party in the election and assumed office as the President of South Korea on May 10, 2017.