Foreign relations of South Korea
On January 18, 1952 The first president of South Korea Syngman Rhee declared that the vicinity of Dokdo was a territory of South Korea (Syngman Rhee line). Subsequently, some 3,000 Japanese fishermen who conducted fishery operations in this vicinity were captured. This incident, called the Dai Ichi Daihoumaru Ship case strained relations between South Korea and Japan.
Moon Jae-in
The general election originally had 15 announced candidates. Moon faced four other major party nominees during the election, including 2012 presidential rival and past party colleague Ahn Cheol-soo of the People's Party and Hong Jun-pyo of the Liberty Korea Party. He was elected the 19th President of South Korea in Korea's 19th presidential election by a large plurality over two other major opponents, conservative Hong Joon-pyo and centrist Ahn Cheol-soo.
On 10 May 2017, Moon ended his campaign by winning 41.1% votes (with 13,423,800 votes) to win the plurality of votes. As Moon was elected in a special election, he did not have the 60 days of transitional period of previous administrations, but was instead inaugurated the day after the election.