How did South Korea’s COVID-19 response affect Moon Jae-In’s popularity?

Moon Jae-In’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 provided a significant boost to his popularity, which had previously sagged in late 2019 due to economic struggles and a corruption scandal involving his justice minister.1

Although South Korea appeared to be a major epicenter of the outbreak in February 2020, Moon’s aggressive mobilization of the country’s public health apparatus successfully flattened the curve of infection. This effective response became a central theme of the Democratic Party’s campaign for the April 2020 legislative election, which resulted in a resounding victory for Moon’s coalition, securing the largest legislative majority since South Korea’s transition to democracy in 1987.1