South Korean President Moon Jae-in yesterday said he would pardon his chief conservative rival and predecessor, Park Geun-hye, who is serving a lengthy prison term for bribery and other crimes.
Moon said the pardon is meant to promote national unity in the face of difficulties brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some observers say that Moon might want to ease conservative criticism stemming from Park’s health problems, or even use her to split the opposition ahead of a presidential election in March.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“We should move into a new era by getting over the pains of the past. It’s time to boldly pull together all our strengths for the future rather than fighting against each other while being preoccupied with the past,” Moon said in remarks released by his office.
“In the case of former president Park, we considered the fact that her health condition has deteriorated a lot after serving nearly five years in prison,” he said.
The South Korean Ministry of Justice said that the 69-year-old Park is among 3,094 people who are to be pardoned on Friday next week.
South Korea often grants special pardons to mark New Year’s Day or national holidays.
Park has since last month been treated in a hospital, from where she would be released, the ministry said.
Officials did not elaborate on Park’s health, but local media reported that she has been suffering from a lumbar disc, a shoulder injury, dental problems and mental stress.
In comments released by Park’s lawyer, Yoo Young-ha, she thanked Moon for pardoning her and said she would focus on treating her illnesses.
She said she wants to offer her greetings to the people at an early date.
Park, a daughter of assassinated former South Korean president Park Chung-hee, was once the darling of conservatives in South Korea.
Dubbed by local media “the queen of elections,” she became South Korea’s first female president in late 2012 by beating Moon, then a unified liberal candidate, by about 1 million votes.
Park Geun-hye was propelled by conservatives who celebrate her father as a hero who pulled the country up from postwar poverty despite his suppression of human rights.
She was impeached by lawmakers in late 2016, and was formally removed from office and arrested the following year over an explosive corruption scandal that prompted months of massive street protests.
In January, the South Korean Supreme Court upheld her 20-year prison term.
If she had not been pardoned, she could have served a combined 22 years behind bars because she was separately convicted of meddling in her party’s nominations of candidates ahead of parliamentary elections in 2016.
Park has described herself as a victim of political revenge. She has refused to attend her trials since October 2017.
Among the main charges she faced was collusion with her long-time confidante, Choi Soon-sil, to take millions of US dollars in bribes and extortion from some of the country’s largest business groups, including Samsung Electronics Co, while she was in office.
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