were refugees from South Hamgyong Province, North Korea who fled their native city of Hungnam in the Hungnam evacuation during the Korean War. His father worked as head of agriculture department who detains food, especially rice of Korean colonial people as one of the main tasks at the Heungnam, Hamju, South Hamgyong Province. His family eventually settled in Busan. Since his father did not want to become a government employee as he had been in North Korea, his father started a business selling socks, which left his family in great debt. His mother became the main earner by selling clothes received from relief organizations and delivering briquettes. Moon's family became attached to the Catholic Church when his mother went to the local cathedral to receive whole milk powder. Moon once said in an interview that he did not know how to ride a bike since his family was too poor to afford a bike or a monthly school tuition. Moon entered Kyungnam High School and reportedly placed at the top of his class. He was accepted to study law at Kyung Hee University with a full scholarship. At university, he met his future wife, Kim Jung-sook. After organizing a student protest against the Yushin Constitution, he was arrested, convicted, imprisoned, and expelled from the university. Later, he was conscripted into the military and assigned to the South Korean special forces, where he participated in "Operation Paul Bunyan" during the axe murder incident in Panmunjom. After his honourable discharge, the death of his father influenced him to decide to take the bar exam. He stayed at the Buddhist temple of Daeheungsa to study for the exam, and passed the first of two rounds in 1979. In 1980, he returned to the university to complete his remaining year of his studies. Later that year, he passed the second round and was admitted to the Judicial Research and Training Institute. He graduated from the Institute as the second in his class but was not admitted as a judge or state prosecutor due to his history of student activism against the Yushin dictatorship under Park Chung-hee. Moon chose to go into private practice instead. Early career Human rights lawyer After becoming a lawyer, he worked under future president Roh Moo-hyun in the 1980s. Along with Roh, he took cases involving the labor rights issues and became renowned for his work in labor human rights.