"I believe the purpose of government reform may vary from government to government. That is because the public demands may be different at different times. And the call of the day our government is getting is different from those of past governments," the president said in a meeting with top government officials to discuss government reform.
"During the past two administrations, the people frequently witnessed public offices and powers being used for personal gains at Cheong Wa Dae on top and also at public firms. That led to the impeachment of a president ... and that is why the top objective of innovation under our government, in one word, is to restore fairness of public offices," he added, according to Cheong Wa Dae pool reports.
Moon took office in May after winning the presidential by-election caused by the ouster of his conservative predecessor Park Geun-hye over corruption allegations.
The president insisted the efforts to make sure public offices serve the public must start with efforts to eradicate corruption.
"Preventing corruption may be the start for efforts to restore fairness of the government and public offices.
And therefore we cannot but start our reform with efforts to correct past wrongdoings," Moon told the meeting attended by some 180 government officials, including 18 ministers.
Last week the president instructed his government to swiftly lay off all 226 employees at Kangwon Land casino who are believed to have landed their jobs through illicit means, such as soliciting.
He reaffirmed his decision, despite strong objections from opposition parties that the government should not take such steps before court convictions.
Many of the employees at the only casino with access to local residents have also claimed their allegations were groundless.
"Also in case of job-related corruption, we must revoke the employment of those who were accepted through corruptive means, such as fabricating their test records, or lay them off, and redeem those who were unfairly rejected due to such corruption. That would be the start of efforts to restore the fairness and neutrality in employment," Moon said.
He also called for efforts to better protect the rights of women at workplaces.
"Preventing sexual violence has become a new objective of our times, along with an expansion of women advancing to high offices.
We may be able to break the glass ceiling and build a new world where no one will be treated unfairly and with prejudice when the public offices first set a good example," the president was quoted as saying.
The president also stressed the need to simplify the country's legal codes, asserting that outdated language and technical terms continued to allow monopolization of knowledge and power by a few.
"We may say allowing ordinary citizens to easily understand the code of laws and administrative vocabulary is truly the most important start of our administration for the people," he said.