I am an editorial writer at The Korea Times, focusing on foreign policy, North Korea and domestic politics. My key areas of interest include North Korea, foreign interference in elections, election integrity, cyberattacks and human rights. Prior to joining the Editorial Board, I served as both Politics Desk editor and Culture Desk editor. During my career, I have reported on the Presidential Office under the Lee Myung-bak administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Assembly.
Assembly seeks to curb pardons
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Lawmakers stepped up efforts to reduce the constitutional powers of the head of state Wednesday, a day after President Lee Myung-bak granted special pardons to long-time friends, mentors and political aides convicted of corruption.
This followed a barrage of criticism directed at President Lee from both the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) after he showed leniency toward 55 people, including former Korea Communications Commission Chairman Choi See-joong.
Rep. Lee Un-ju of the DUP submitted a revision bill to a National Assembly committee intended to restrict a sitting president’s right to grant legal pardons.
The bill proposes that a president would not be able to grant legal pardons to high-ranking government officials sentenced to jail terms, including those convicted of corruption and sex offenses against children.
To become effective, the bill needs to be approved in a parliamentary plenary session if committee members to pass it.
Ruling Saenuri Party lawmakers also voiced concern about the pardons granted by the outgoing president, seeking measures to prevent repetition of such cases.
During a briefing, Rep. Lee Cheol-woo said that now is the time to seek legislation to prevent an incumbent president from abusing his or her constitutional right to grant pardons.
“The nation reels in controversy over the pros and cons of an outgoing president’s right to grant special pardons to people during every transition period. Now is the time for this to end,” the lawmaker said.
Rep. Lee said the ruling party will study practices in foreign countries in order to find a system that could be used as an operational model for Korea.
The presidential transition team released two separate statements criticizing President Lee for pardoning associates mired in corruption. These were read by Yoon Chang-jung, a team spokesman, and Cho Yoon-sun, a spokeswoman for President-elect Park Geun-hye.
Yoon said President Lee’s decision would backfire, warning that he should take full responsibility for the consequences.
The reactions from the transition team, which were construed as reflective of Park’s view, were unusual because the two spokespeople read almost identical statements.
Hong Sung-geol, a professor of Seoul-based Kookmin University, blamed both the outgoing and incoming presidents for separate demonstrations of flawed judgment.
“On President Lee’s side, I think he should have thought twice about granting special pardons to controversial figures, such as Choi and Chun Shin-il, chairman of Sejoong Namo Tour and Lee’s long-time friend,” Hong said. The professor added that being lenient to people like them was detrimental because Lee will face unavoidable criticism even after he leaves the presidency in February.
Hong said that this doesn’t necessarily mean that President-elect Park showed good judgment either, noting that she is also not above criticism because of what he referred to as Park’s inappropriate reaction to the presidential pardons granted.
“Until she officially takes over on Feb. 25, she is not the president. Park was supposed to respect President Lee on special pardons because as a sitting president he is entitled to exercise the right,” he said.
Hong also said the presidential transition team’s stormy reactions to the sitting president’s pardons were immature.