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South Korean President Moon Jae-in takes questions from reporters after delivering an address Monday to mark four years in office at the Blue House press center. (provided by the Blue House)

A large portion of South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s address Monday to mark four years in office, and his subsequent press conference, was devoted to emphasizing his achievements during his term so far and noting that he had successfully navigated numerous crises since taking office.

Indeed, the word for “crisis” came up 33 times in the address and press conference that day, while the words for “overcome” and “recover” appeared 23 times.

His emphasis appeared to signal his determination to regain momentum in his governance, touting his past “victories over crisis” in response to critics recently accusing him of incompetence and a lack of capabilities ahead of his fourth anniversary in office.

In a nearly 30-minute address before his press conference that day, Moon declared that an “end to the war against COVID-19 is in sight,” adding that the South Korean economy had “outstripped one G7 member state in terms of GDP per capita for the first time in history” last year and that policies of income-led growth and inclusiveness had been major forces in overcoming the pandemic.

In the following press conference, Moon was asked what he regarded as the “most meaningful change in the past four years,” as well as which policy he “still feels unsatisfied about.”

“The past four years have been a series of crises,” he replied, singling out the North Korean nuclear and missile crises, Japanese controls on exports of semiconductor materials, and the COVID-19 pandemic and emphasizing that his administration had managed to overcome them.

As the area he was least satisfied with, Moon named “the real estate issue.”

“We haven’t succeeded in our goal of stabilizing prices, and we were held sternly to account for that in the by-elections,” he said.

He also actively rebutted criticisms that the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines in South Korea has been delayed, stressing that his administration’s efforts to ensure a supply of vaccines should be evaluated fairly.

“I do wish the vaccinations could have started a bit earlier,” he acknowledged, before emphasizing that “the fact that vaccinations are proceeding as planned and without setbacks should be fairly assessed.”

“Some have compared us with other countries that are leading the way in vaccine administration, but [South Korea] is not a country that has developed vaccines, and in light of our inability to make large prior investments, our disease control authorities and experts have carefully devised a vaccine supply and administration plan to suit our disease control situation,” he said.

He also noted that South Korea “has been able to acquire enough vaccines for double our population.”

He went on to say that he planned to “increase the rate of vaccinations so that the target of achieving herd immunity by November is moved up from the original plan” and called for active cooperation from the South Korean public.

By Lee Wan, staff reporter

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