President Moon Jae-in’s first week in office has received mixed reactions from the opposition parties, ranging from harsh criticism to him being “frighteningly” good.

On Wednesday, Liberty Korea Party floor leader Rep. Chung Woo-taik notched up the criticism by honing in on the backgrounds of Moon’s aides. Saying Moon favors the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and those with ties to late President Roh Moo-hyun, Chung remarked his choices are far from the fairness Moon promised.

In particular, Chung focused on presidential aides with alleged links to anti-establishment and pro-North Korean activities.


“People who have in the past participated in pro-North left-wing or anti-establishment activities are included among key Cheong Wa Dae and government positions,” Chung said.

“This is fairness limited to the party (Democratic Party), not fairness on the national level.”

Moon’s aides who faced accusations of pro-North Korean activities including Chief of Staff Lim Jong-seok, who was involved in former lawmaker Lim Su-kyung’s unauthorized visit to Pyongyang in 1989. Both Lims served prison terms for violating the National Security Act.

Chung also likened Moon’s actions as president to those of US President Donald Trump. Saying Moon is imitating Trump’s executive orders, Chung criticized Moon and claimed his actions are not only populist, but may be violating administrative procedures.

Chung further said the new president has not shown any desire to cooperate with the opposition parties and that disregard for the opposition is already visible in his actions.

The centrist People’s Party took a similar tack.

“Taking a look at the past week since Moon’s election, it is worrying whether he has the intention of cooperative governance,” People’s Party floor leader Rep. Kim Dong-cheol said at a party conference Wednesday. Kim went on to raise questions about Moon’s decision to temporarily shut down coal power plants to tackle air pollution, saying it was ill-conceived.

In stark contrast to opposition leaders, individual lawmakers have given high praise to the new administration.

While his party’s leadership raised the heat, Rep. Lee Sang-don of the People’s Party sent out a contrasting message, saying the Moon administration “is off to a good start” in a radio interview.

The highest praise so far has come from an unlikely corner.

The Baruen Party’s Rep. Lee Hye-hoon, a third-term lawmaker once considered to be of the pro-Park Geun-hye faction, also said the Moon administration was off to a good start.

“To be honest, I think (the new administration) is doing frighteningly well,” Lee said in a radio interview. Citing the Moon administration’s actions to improve communication with the public, Lee said the new president is meeting voters’ expectations.

In contrast to the conservatives’ usual attack on the progressive bloc’s stance on national security, Lee assessed Moon’s response to Pyongyang’s latest missile launch as having “sent a strong message (that) surprised everyone.”

The country’s political arena may be divided, but the public for the large part appears to be behind Moon.

According to a recent survey conducted by Realmeter, 74.1 percent of the public had positive expectations for the Moon administration.

In the survey, 41.6 percent of respondents said Moon will do “very well” as president, while 33.2 percent said they expected his presidency to have generally positive results.

At the other end of the scale, 6.3 percent said they expected Moon to perform very badly, and 9.7 percent said that they had a generally negative outlook for his term.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)