Tie-free, draft beer, unscripted lively talk, and all ears was how the new host of the Blue House entertained the country’s top business leaders.

South Korea’s liberal President Moon Jae-in, who has been breaking norms by mingling and dining with staff, presented himself equally approachable to leaders of the family-run chaebols, whom as a candidate he had labeled as part of the “evil establishments of the past” that must be done with.

The business leaders arrived at the Blue House Thursday and Friday in two groups without the usual set of script given out by the presidential office and dressed in semi-casual fit for a garden beer party.

Moon took pains to differentiate himself from his predecessor who is now at trial for forcing donations out of chaebol owners in discreet tete-a-tete meetings.

Also gone were the ceremonial group picture and the scene of the president speaking while others respectably listened.

Instead of a script, he included a special guest - head of mid-sized foodmaker Ottogi - as a poster child for the government’s economic policy directed to increase hiring, welfare, and income of employees. Although family-run, Ottogi chief has been willingly paying inheritance tax and hiring most of its employees on permanent basis.

The other first group members were Hyundai Motor, LG, Posco, Hanwha, Shinsegae, Doosan and CJ.

“Businesses must run well for the economy to run well,” Moon said in his toast speech and invited the others to chant “Prosperity for all.”

Moon mostly listened when they sat down for in-depth talks. He asked Posco CEO Kwon Oh-joon about trade barriers from the United States.

“For the time being, we have given up selling steel in the U.S.,” he admitted.

LG Corp. Vice Chairman Koo Bon-joon complained about China’s discriminatory action on Korean battery makers by excluding them from state electric vehicle subsidies.

Doosan Group Chairman Park Jeong-won said Doosan Heavy Industries would take a direct hit should the construction of Shin Kori 5 and 6 reactors be permanently scrapped as it is a key equipment provider. He asked for the government’s support to compensate for losses through bigger overseas opportunities.

Hanwha Group Vice Chairman Keum Choon-soo welcomed the government’s nuclear phase-out policy and asked for deregulations and other realistic support to promote renewable energy.

On Friday, Moon would be hosting representatives from Samsung Electronics, SK, Lotte, GS, Hyundai Heavy Industries, KT and Korean Air.

By Kang Gye-man and Oh Soo-hyun

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]