South Korea's finance chief has given an interview to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency... taking a look back at the past year of economic policy... and looking ahead to the rest of 2019.
Minister Hong Nam-ki also explained how the Moon Jae-in administration plans to strengthen its economic growth policy by raising wages.
Hong Yoo reports.
Evaluating the results of the income-led growth policy last year, Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said their mistake was to think that the solution to income inequality was to raise the minimum wage, which they did, instead of working more broadly on the four main points of the income-led growth policy.
The policy was intended to provide jobs for the unemployed, stabilize incomes by raising the wages of low-paid workers, reduce living costs for the lowest income earners and lastly to strengthen the social safety net, and thereby raise incomes that way too.
However, income inequality in the last quarter of 2018 was the highest on record.

Minister Hong said uneven income distribution is directly related to unemployment, so creating more jobs in the private sector could be a solution.
The government expects some improvement in the second half of the year as it tries to increase employment in the private sector by providing financial subsidies and as it strengthens the social safety net.
The aim is to have 150 thousand more people working by the end of the year.

Finance Minister Hong also emphasized that in the meantime the government will also use its financial capacity to support people who aren't able to find work.
Hong Yoo, Arirang News.