Moon Jae-in has been declared winner in South Korea’s presidential election by that country’s National Election Commission.
Moon, the Democratic Party’s candidate has won with 41.08% of votes. Moon will replace the ousted President Park Geun-hye, who was ejected from office in March after a corruption scandal for which she’s awaiting trial.
Moon narrowly lost to Park in 2012 election.
Park was South Korea’s first female president. She has been impeached in a corruption scandal.
Moon is a 64 year old former human rights lawyer and a liberal who favours a more open policy toward North Korea.
Unlike predecessors, Moon favours engagement with North Korea and has challenged the deployment of US missile defence system in South Korea.
Moon is a staunch proponent of the “Sunshine Policy”, which aimed to improve relations between the two Koreas from 1998 to 2008.
Moon Jae-in: Know More- A son of refugees who fled North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, in 1975, Moon was jailed for staging anti-government protests.
- Later, he became a human rights lawyer and defended the rights of poor labourers and student activists. In 1972, Moon became a part of a pro-democracy movement to topple the dictatorship of Park Chung-hee.
- Park Chung-hee ruled South Korea for 18 years.
- He was the father of recently ousted President Park Geun-hye.
