Political disparity was not the only factor to distinguish South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his US counterpart Donald Trump, the two state chiefs who made their first encounter in Washington for a summit this week.

Much in contrast to Trump, an aggressive and affluent businessman with an unpredictable and controversial way of action, Moon is more of a man of principle and caution, a social climber who has made his way from scratch.

Due to such conspicuous divergence, many expressed concerns not only over the summit itself but for the bilateral alliance which it stands for, especially with North Korea’s nuclear ambitions surging upon the Korean Peninsula.

Son of refugee family vs. heir to real estate investor

Moon was born in January, 1953, in the midst of the Korean War. His parents, having left their previous home in the North in 1950, settled in South Gyeongsang Province’s Geoje where they lived an outlander’s life for years, relying on relief goods and hard labor.

The only gift that the young Moon did have was his bright mind, which led him to prestigious schools, including Kyunghee University’s Law School.

Even during his college years, however, Moon underwent hardships as he devoted himself to the student activist movement denouncing the military dictatorship of then-President Park Chung-hee. It was behind prison bars where he was notified of his passing of the state bar exam.

Trump, on the other hand, was born in 1946 to an affluent family, with his father being a successful real estate investor.

After earning an economics degree from the Wharton School, the junior Trump went straight into the family business, starting with the Trump Organization, a real estate development firm founded by his paternal grandmother.

As of 2017, he was the 544th richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $3.5 billion.


Human rights lawyer vs. ‘You’re fired’

After failing to be appointed as a judge due to his activist protest records, Moon settled as a human rights lawyer, seeking to use his talent for the sake of social justice.

It was during these years that he met Roh Moo-hyun, a friend and mentor who would later become the nation‘s 16th president.

Seeing himself as a civic activist, Moon had always vowed to distance himself from politics. It was the tragic death of his friend and mentor Roh in 2009 which pushed him to take a political stand in 2012 to vie with then conservative rival Park Geun-hye.

Unlike Moon, who had to struggle his way to the top, Trump had always belonged to the economically upper class, being the employer rather than the employee.

His representative public image was created during his years of producing the Apprentice in 2004-2015, when his buzzword “You’re fired!” spread around the nation.

It was to the surprise of many when the “eccentric billionaire” suddenly made his political bid and rose to beat his eligible liberal candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

The two also differed in their presidential campaign slogan. Moon vowed to “build a decent nation” in which everybody could live in dignity, while Trump called to “make America great again,” gesturing to place the nation‘s interests as a top priority.


In full momentum vs. slapped by scandal

With less than two months since the snap election and the immediate swearing-in of President Moon, he is still enjoying an unprecedentedly high level of support from the nation.

According to a survey by pollster Gallup Korea, Moon’s approval rating stood at 80 percent, up 1 percentage point from the previous week. The corresponding figure reached a record-high of 84 percent in the first week of June.

His tremendous popularity is attributable to a number of factors, one of them being the fact that he took office in the wake of the ouster of his scandal-ridden predecessor Park Geun-hye.

Trump, after being inaugurated amid burgeoning concerns, seemed to be on smooth sailing for a while, but soon faced allegations of covert ties with the Russian government.

Though the possibility of an impeachment is deemed unlikely, the US president’s provocative remarks and abrupt actions are continuing to drag down his popularity.

According to Rasmussen, one of the most conservative-leaning pollsters in the US, Trump‘s approval rating stood at 50 percent.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)