President Moon: "It is wrong to incite conflict in politics... I hope the political culture changes"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yang Nak-gyu] President Moon Jae-in stated, "The National Assembly and the government should strive to move in the direction of national unity, and it is not right for the political circles to take the lead in dividing the people and inciting conflict."

On the 14th, President Moon held a New Year's press conference at the Blue House State Guest House under the theme "Certain Change, Republic of Korea 2020," saying, "Everyone says the livelihood economy is difficult, so we must join hands and put our heads together. While verbally saying the livelihood economy is difficult, we should not show signs as if we hope the government will fail. In any case, not working like this is unacceptable."

President Moon said, "On May 10th, I was inaugurated without a transition committee, and the first thing I did was visit the opposition party headquarters to meet with its leadership," adding, "The opposition party is constantly changing, splitting, and merging, making it difficult to identify specific dialogue partners, but I want to engage in dialogue as much as possible."

President Moon stated, "Realistically, it may not be easy to achieve much in the current National Assembly, but since many tasks remain, I ask that you bring things to a successful conclusion as much as possible," and "I sincerely hope the next National Assembly will be an opportunity for rebirth."

This is President Moon's third New Year's press conference. Unlike previous years, since he delivered a New Year's address on the 7th, this year there was no separate New Year's speech, and after a brief opening remark of about three minutes, the conference proceeded in a Q&A format. The Q&A with reporters was divided into three topics?politics and society, livelihood and economy, and diplomacy and security?without pre-selecting questioners.