China News Service, April 21. According to Korean media reports, South Korean President Moon Jae-in stated on the 21st that two factors must be considered in pardoning former presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye. One is the consensus of the whole people, and the other is conducive to national unity.
According to reports, Moon Jae-in invited the newly-elected mayor of Seoul, Oh Se-hoon, and the mayor of Busan, Park Hyung-gyu, to hold a lunch meeting at the Blue House on the same day.
Goh Se-hoon held a press conference at the Seoul City Hall after the meal and said that he had thought about the subject before lunch, but he did not expect Mayor Park Hyung-gyu to propose the pardon of the two former presidents.
On March 22, 2018 local time, in Seoul, South Korea, former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak walked out of his private residence.
In October 2020, the South Korean Supreme Court made a final judgment on the corruption and bribery case of former President Lee Myung-bak and sentenced Lee Myung-bak to 17 years in prison.
Another former South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, was impeached in March 2017 and lost judicial immunity due to a scandal involving “trustees in politics”. He was detained in a detention center on the 31st of the same month.
On January 14, 2021, the South Korean Supreme Court made a final judgment on Park Geun-hye’s “confidential involvement in government” and bribery cases, sentenced Park Geun-hye to 20 years in prison, fined 18 billion won, and recovered 3.5 billion won.
In addition, Park Geun-hye was sentenced to 2 years for violating the public office election law. Currently, Park Geun-hye has a total sentence of 22 years.
Data map: Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye.
Senior staff of the president disclosed that Moon Jae-in said that the two former presidents serving sentences at the same time are heartbreaking, and that both of them are very old, and it is worrying to hear that they are suffering from health problems.
Analysis believes that Moon Jae-in’s above reply reveals the idea that “it is not suitable to discuss pardons at this time.
The president's staff said that the president did not make a statement on whether to agree to the pardon that day.
The President has always exercised restraint on the issue of the right to amnesty. Therefore, the President’s words should be understood from this perspective.
In January, when Moon Jae-in held a New Year's press conference, he said that now is not the time to talk about pardons. The major premise of pardons is to form a national consensus. If a broad national consensus cannot be formed, pardons cannot be a way to strengthen unity.
According to a poll released by South Korea on January 8, 2021, more than half of South Korean citizens opposed the pardon of former Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye.
On February 4, the then Prime Minister of South Korea, Ding Shi-kyun, answered questions from members of the parliament in a question to the government in the parliament. He also said that it would not be easy to pardon the two former presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye without the consent of the people.