Many believe her release is a political move ahead of March election
Former President Park Geun-hye, who was sent to jail in 2017, was pardoned on Friday by the Moon Jae-in administration. Many observers believe the actual reason that President Moon decided to pardon Park was to affect the upcoming presidential election in March 2022. The news media is reporting that despite the fact that the presidential Blue House said that it was not a political decision, it will have a huge influence in the upcoming election and may negatively affect the conservatives.
The special pardon came four years and nine months after Park, 69, was convicted of corruption and abuse of power and sentenced to a total of 22 years in prison. She was in prison longer than her four years and one month in the Blue House. She served the longest term in prison among former South Korean presidents. Roh Tae-woo spent 768 days in prison and Chun Doo-hwan spent 751 days.
Park was impeached in December 2016 and removed from office in March 2017. The Ministry of Justice announced that Park was among a list of 3,094 people who were granted special amnesty by the government. She will be released on December 31.
Park was pardoned in consideration of her deteriorating health, the government said. Park received surgery on her shoulder in 2019 and has since suffered from chronic shoulder and back pain. She was hospitalized three times this year. She is currently hospitalized at the Samsung Medical Center in southern Seoul and is expected to be released directly from there.
The government’s explanation as to why it decided to pardon the former president is as follows:
“We must overcome the pain of the past and move forward into a new era,” Moon said, according to presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee. “Now is the time to boldly join forces toward the future rather than quarrel with each other caught up in the past. In particular, considering the many challenges we face, national unity and humble inclusiveness are more urgent than anything else.” The spokesperson added that Moon “took into account the fact that her health deteriorated significantly after serving close to five years in prison.”
In short, Moon’s decision came because of two factors – national unity and her health. When Moon was first elected, he said he would not pardon criminals who committed grave crimes. This was a rhetorical device that Moon supporters used to not pardon Park. These supporters are already criticizing Moon for pardoning Park. There are some commentators who say that Moon made the decision to leave a political legacy before ending his term.
As the decision came just three months before the election, many expect that it will have a huge impact. The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) welcomed the president’s decision publicly but it was reported that members of the party are concerned about a possible negative impact. According to reports, some members are worried that it will remind people of the so-called “meddling with state affairs” under the Park Geun-hye administration and divide conservatives over whether to support the party’s candidate Yoon Seok-yeol. Yoon, the former Prosecutor General under the Moon administration, was a key member of the special counsel team that indicted Park and many of her key officials.
Yoon, who said he will consider pardoning Park as soon as he becomes the next president, released a statement on Friday saying that he “welcomed” the pardon though it was late. He added, “I hope she can have a speedy recovery.”
It appears that the pardon will not have much of an impact on the ruling Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung. The party’s leader Song Young-gil released a short statement saying that he “respects the government’s decision,” and that “it is the constitutional right of the president.” The DP seemed to draw the line with the Blue House, as it did not consult with the president or give an opinion to the president regarding the issue.
The JoongAng Ilbo newspaper interviewed several officials working on Lee’s election team. An official told the newspaper that “we now have an opportunity to get more moderate and conservative votes who are disappointed in Yoon.” The official added that “President Moon took away the burden for Lee to unify the nation.”
Another official told the newspaper that “Yoon will be in a very uncomfortable situation right now.” The official argued that “Yoon became the candidate who put former President Park in prison, and we became the camp that released her from prison.”
The DP’s presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung also said he “respects President Moon’s difficult decision agonizing over national unity” but called on Park to give a “sincere apology to the people.”
Park said in a statement through her attorney Yoo Young-ha, “I would like to apologize to the public for causing so much concern.” Yoo told reporters that Park also expressed her “deepest gratitude to President Moon Jae-in and government authorities who decided to grant a pardon despite many difficulties.”
Meanwhile, the Moon administration also announced that it will exonerate Han Myeong-sook, former prime minister during the leftist Roh Moo-hyun administration, who was convicted of bribery and served her full prison sentence. Han, who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2007, was imprisoned from 2015 to 2017 after she was convicted of accepting about 900 million won ($795,000) in illegal political funds from a now-deceased businessman while in office.
Lee Seok-ki, a former lawmaker from an ultra-left-wing party who was imprisoned for plotting a rebellion against the South Korean government, was also pardoned on Friday. Lee was indicted in September 2013, during the Park administration, on charges of conspiring with a clandestine organization to overthrow the government if a war broke out on the Korean Peninsula.
In 2014, Lee was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but a high court reduced the term to nine years. Lee was also given an additional eight-month prison term for embezzling hundreds of million won for his campaigns for a municipal election in 2010 and a gubernatorial election in 2011.
The PPP criticized the Moon administration’s decision to pardon Lee, saying it directly contradicted a ruling made by the country’s judiciary. The court under the Park Geun-hye administration ruled that Lee’s party was unconstitutional and dissolved it.
Some conservative political commentators argued that the Moon administration is trying to make it look like Park, Lee, and Han are all people who were “scapegoats” that deserve to be pardoned. These commentators believe that Park’s convictions are legally controversial, while Lee’s crimes were clear that he tried to overthrow the South Korean government with pro-North Korean ideas.
Former President Lee Myung-bak, who has been serving a 17-year prison sentence over embezzlement and other convictions since 2018, was not pardoned.
