Gallup Korea has assessed an 87 percent approval rate for President Moon Jae-in (saying he “will do well for the next 5 years”) in the second week after he took office on May 10. This high rate of endorsement for Moon, who was elected with 41.4 percent of votes cast in the May 9 election, is surprising.

Pollsters and analysts attribute the figure to a number of image factors that portrayed a “real person” who breathes and works in the middle of the people, in contrast to his reclusive predecessor. In the May 18 anniversary ceremony in Gwangju, for example, he belted out the “March to the Beloved” resistance song along with citizens and wiped away tears when the 37-year-old daughter of a man killed in the 1980 pro-democracy uprising read a eulogy to her father.

He paid little heed to protocol and trappings of prestige; he broke tradition by briefing the press himself on the appointments of cabinet members and presidential secretaries. When he invited the floor leaders of the five parties to a luncheon at a pavilion in the Blue House, he waited for them at the door, instead of keeping them there for minutes until he appeared, a practice that annoyed visitors of any status.

These gestures looked fresh on news hour TV screens. People liked the style, even if they were still not sure if Moon could make their life happier and safer. His new nominations to key government posts brought more positive expectations than disappointments, especially with some female appointees. Yet, we do not know what skeletons they have in their closets and whether their eye-catching resumes guarantee their individual capabilities.

So, the 87 percent approval rate needs more scrutiny. The 46 percent added to the 41 percent Moon earned in the election certainly represents the voters that had disapproved of Moon’s policies on national security issues but changed their opinion after he took office. When Kim Jong-un launched an IRBM on the first Sunday after his inauguration, Moon did what any president of this republic was required to do, which was a little better than what his immediate predecessor did.

Earlier, barely an hour after the Central Election Commission declared his election victory, the new commander-in-chief called JCS Chairman Gen. Lee Soon-jin to ask him about the state of the armed forces’ preparedness. Moon thus showed off his own readiness to lead the nation through the rising security concerns and ease apprehensions of conservative voters who had been irked by his words on the THAAD anti-missile system deployment and the broader question of Korea-US alliance.

Another reassuring step was his visit to the Defense Ministry and the adjoining Joint Chiefs of Staff on May 17 for the new president’s first inspection of government offices. He wanted to tell the people -- and the watchers up in the North -- what his top priority in governance was. And President Moon is obviously trying hard to convince as many people as possible that he would never jeopardize the security of the nation even if he garnered a considerable number of votes from people who might expect from him a soft approach to the North.

At the ministry, he demonstrated a different president, giving his autograph to begging female soldiers while some men in uniforms were chatting and smoking in a resting place on the same floor as the main conference room. A reporter described these scenes as “unimaginable” in previous administrations which used to cordon the entire building off during presidential inspections.

Generals saluted to the former opposition leader with full respect, reporting their names and ranks before shaking hands with the commander-in-chief who was a sergeant in an Army special forces unit during the 1970s. But in their minds, our Korea’s brass must have questions about the practicability of the president’s campaign promises, particularly the one to cut the compulsory service period of conscripted soldiers to 18 months from the current 21 months, and further to 12 months under a long-term plan.

With regard to the deployment here of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, the president and his Democratic Party originally had the policy of referring the issue to the National Assembly on the grounds it would eventually require Korea to bear its cost. Now, the North’s weekly test-firing of ballistic missiles since Moon’s inauguration is apparently driving the new administration to regard THAAD deployment as a fait accompli.

President Moon emphasized his pursuit of overall reforms in the defense structure and elimination of irregularities especially in arms procurement. Yet, equally important is ensuring continuity in strategic planning for a possible war on the Korean Peninsula under the Korea-US military alliance. He should draw a line between what can be changed and what cannot be in the bilateral system of defense cooperation which helped maintain peace here over the past 64 years since the Korean War.

Given high priority in the Moon Jae-in government is the reform of the law enforcement system with the prosecution at the top in view of the public censure on the abuse of power by politicized prosecutors and their negligence in checking wrongdoings around the Blue House, namely the Choi Sun-sil scandal. The top echelon of the prosecution has been replaced to launch new teams of prosecutors at all levels of the organization as the new administration sets sail.

Defense is different. If irregularities have been uncovered in the areas of military procurement or personnel affairs, responsibility needs to be confined to the individuals directly involved and not to the whole leadership. The change of administration should have little to do with the military’s strategic concepts and plans, although the new president may seek to revise long-term defense improvement plans, if need be.

It was because of the importance of continuity in national defense administration that US president Barack Obama retained Robert Gates as defense secretary when he formed his first cabinet in 2009. Gates served three years under George W. Bush and then two more years under Obama. In our government, Kim Kwan-jin, defense minister under Lee Myung-bak, was reappointed in 2013 by Park Geun-hye, who later named him head of the National Security Office in the Blue House.

Korea’s armed service chiefs have two-year tenures. It is desirable that President Moon guarantee them to complete their terms of office for the sake of organizational and operational continuity in the military community.


By Kim Myong-sik

Kim Myong-sik, a former editorial writer for The Korea Herald, worked for many years as a defense correspondent. – Ed.