Special pardons granted to Lee Myung-bak, Kim Kyoung-soo, politicians

President Yoon Suk-yeol granted special pardons to politicians along the party lines including former President Lee Myung-bak and former South Gyeongsang Gov. Kim Kyoung-soo Tuesday, ahead of the New Year.

Former President Lee Myung-bak, left, and former South Gyeongsang Gov. Kim Kyoung-soo

President Yoon Suk-yeol granted special pardons to politicians along the party lines including former President Lee Myung-bak and former South Gyeongsang Gov. Kim Kyoung-soo Tuesday, ahead of the New Year.

After a Cabinet meeting earlier in the day, Justice Minister Han Dong-hoon revealed in a press conference the final shortlist of 1,373 individuals granted year-end pardons by the president including Lee and Kim.

Han said the presidential pardons were in the spirit of "reconciliation, inclusiveness and widespread national unity."

The pardons were set to take effect on Wednesday at midnight.

Lee's release comes after four months and nine months in prison. The 81-year-old has been serving a 17-year sentence for embezzlement and bribery since November 2020 and was fined over 13 billion won ($10.2 million). He served as president from 2008 to 2013.

Lee was among nine politicians and 66 public officials who were both pardoned and had their rights reinstated, taking into consideration his status as a former president.

As Lee's rights were reinstated, he will no longer have to pay around 8.2 billion won in unpaid fines, and the remainder of some 15 years left in his prison sentence will be waived.

Prosecutors granted a three-month suspension of Lee's prison sentence in June because of health issues and another three-month suspension in September. That extension was set to end this month.

Lee is currently hospitalized at Seoul National University Hospital.

Kim, an ally of former liberal President Moon Jae-in, was sentenced to two years in prison for conspiring to manipulate opinion online ahead of the 2017 presidential election.

Kim was granted a pardon without a reinstatement of rights, or restoration of the rights which were lost due to his sentencing, which will prevent him from running for office for the next five years. Thus, he will not be able to run for office until the May 2028 local elections.

The Yoon government said that Kim wasn't reinstated taking into consideration that his crime was a large-scale manipulation of public opinion during the presidential election process, and also considering his position and role at the time.

Kim has less than five months left in his prison term. Earlier this month, Kim said he wasn't interested in being granted parole or in being a part of a package pardon deal with Lee.

However, his supporters had pushed for a full reinstatement of his rights, which would have allowed Kim to run in the general elections in 2024 or the presidential election in 2027. Kim, a key aide to late President Roh Moo-hyun, has been considered as a potential future leader of the Democratic Party (DP).

This marks Yoon's second round of pardons since Liberation Day on Aug. 15, where business tycoons including Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin were granted amnesty. No politicians were included in the first round of pardons.

President Yoon Suk-yeol approves of year-end special pardons in a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Yongsan District, central Seoul, Tuesday. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

The Justice Ministry's pardon review committee came up with a list of recommendations for presidential clemency last Friday. On Tuesday morning, Yoon approved of the final shortlist in a Cabinet meeting.

"After considering opinions from all walks of life, we carefully decided on the candidates and the scope of the pardons," said Yoon. "I hope that the special pardons serve as an opportunity to unite our national power."

This time around, no business figures were pardoned, and instead the list included a slew of key officials from the Park Geun-hye and Lee administrations.

This included Park's former chief of staff Kim Ki-choon and Cho Yoon-sun, her former culture minister and senior presidential secretary for political affairs. They were sentenced for pressuring a business lobby to provide funds to organizations friendly to the Park administration on a so-called whitelist.

The so-called "three doorknobs," a trio of presidential secretaries who have been described as a part of Park's inner circle — Ahn Bong-geun, Lee Jae-man and Jeong Ho-seong — were also pardoned.

Others included Woo Byung-woo, Park's former senior secretary for civil affairs, who was charged with suspicion of illegal inspections involving the National Intelligence Service (NIS), and former Finance Minister Choi Kyoung-hwan who has been serving a five-year prison sentence for taking bribes from the NIS while in office. A series of former NIS chiefs — Nam Jae-joon, Lee Byung-kee, Lee Byong-ho and Cho Won-dong, Park's former senior secretary for economic affairs — made the list.

Former President Park herself, who was impeached in 2016 and removed from office in March 2017 over an influence-peddling scandal surrounding her confidante Choi Soon-sil, had already been pardoned by President Moon Jae-in in December 2021.

Pardons for figures in the Lee administration include former NIS chief Won Sei-hoon, who was sentenced to over 14 years in prison for an election meddling case and other charges.

"Politicians and key public officials who were not included in the Liberation Day pardons were carefully selected and pardoned to give them an opportunity to contribute to national development," said Han in the press conference Tuesday. "We are prepared for an opportunity for national unity and development of the country through these pardons."

The DP in a statement protested the pardons granted to "corrupt" figures in the Lee and Park administrations and also criticized the decision to deny former Gov. Kim's reinstatement.

DP spokesman Park Sung-joon said in a statement that Yoon's special pardons "hinder national unity and divide public opinion," saying it is "unfair" to waive former President Lee's fines while pardoning Kim, who asked not to be included.

"It's deplorable that the DP sees the president's decision toward unity from an outdated political perspective," said Yang Kum-hee, the People Power Party spokesperson, Tuesday in response to the DP's criticism.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]