The three major presidential candidates, the ruling Saenuri Party's Park Geun-hye, the main opposition Democratic United Party's Moon Jae-in and independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo are all calling for changes to the nation's welfare system to make Korea a better place for ordinary citizens to live.
Park emphasizes the government's role in protecting the poor by providing them with financial assistance and job training to help them become active members of society.
Park has also unveiled a new real-estate policy she says will help financially strapped home owners pay their mortgages, and help tenants buy affordable houses.
She is also looking to cut college tuition, while providing free education for those in the bottom 20 percent of the income bracket.
Moon pledges to create over one million jobs and wants to limit the work week to 52 hours.
He says he will do this by fostering new growth industries, improving working conditions and creating a national job creation committee.
Moon also plans to enact a new housing law to expand the number of long-term public rental units, and says he will partially privatize public rental housing.
Ahn is focusing on improving welfare for the elderly, saying this group currently has the highest poverty rate.
Ahn says that better welfare comes with better economic growth therefore, an innovation-based economy is crucial.
It's only been a week since Ahn announced his presidential bid, and he says he's still in the process of developing additional welfare policy proposals.
All three candidates have criticized the government's recently announced plan to scrap a free daycare program for children up to 2 years old starting next March.
Lee Ji-yoon, Arirang News.

Reporter : jiyoonjlee@arirang.co.kr