Former President Moon Jae-in (left) greets visitors at the Pyeongsan Bookstore booth during this year’s Seoul International Book Fair at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on June 18. / Yonhap News

Former President Moon Jae-in visited the Seoul International Book Fair on June 18, attending in his capacity as the “bookshop keeper” of Pyeongsan Bookstore, which he has been running near his residence in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province, since April 2023. Held at the first-floor exhibition hall of COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, the book fair runs from June 18 to 22 and is the largest literary event in Korea. Moon’s visit marks the first time in 12 years that a sitting or former president has attended the event, following then-President Park Geun-hye in 2013.

Moon and his wife Kim Jung-sook arrived at the Pyeongsan Bookstore booth around 2:30 p.m. Their appearance quickly drew hundreds of visitors to the area. Wearing an apron embroidered with the bookstore’s name, Moon greeted attendees one by one and stayed at the booth for about 30 minutes. He exchanged greetings with writer Baek Chang-hwa, who was holding a signing event at the booth, and recommended Baek’s book “Tales from the Forest Bookstore” to visitors.

For this year’s fair, Pyeongsan Bookstore brought 137 books that Moon had recommended via social media during and after his presidency to the fair.

Moon later visited other publishers’ booths and stopped by the Taiwan Pavilion, the fair’s guest of honor, where he spoke with Rex How, head of the Taipei Book Fair Foundation. At 5 p.m., Moon participated in the Best Book in Korea awards ceremony, presenting prizes and delivering congratulatory remarks.

Moon is scheduled to return to the book fair on the 19th to attend a live book talk featuring poets Do Jong-hwan, Ahn Do-hyun, and Park Sung-woo. The event will be held for an audience of 30 people selected through advance registration. Park Sung-woo, a poet and executive director of Pyeongsan Bookstore, said, “Many people have traveled all the way to Yangsan to buy books, so we opened a booth in Seoul as a way of giving back.” He added that “all proceeds from the booth would be used for public-interest projects.”