President Moon Jae-in was sworn into office in a brief ceremony at the National Assembly at noon Wednesday. Unlike previous presidents, Moon had to forgo the 60-day transition period between administrations and a big public inauguration because his predecessor Park Geun-hye was ousted over a corruption scandal.

Moon was read his oath of office to National Assembly Chairman Chung Sye-kyun. He vowed to focus on communicating with the people and promised to consult opposition parties in matters of national security.

He also touched on the issue of too much power being concentrated in the president under the current Constitution, which is widely blamed for tempting every president so far into corruption.

"The powers of the president will be shared as much as possible, and organs of power will be made completely independent from politics," he said.

Moon officially assumed his powers at 8:09 a.m. Wednesday after the head of the National Election Commission announced his election win. As the supreme commander of the armed forces he was briefed over the phone by the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lee Sun-jin. Just five hours later he arrived at Cheong Wa Dae and announced his nominee for prime minister.

The hectic schedule is unprecedented and was the result of packing into a single day what previous presidents were given two months to do.

