The ruling party's presidential candidate, Park Geun-hye, is contemplating a meeting with family members of activists who were executed or jailed during a massive government crackdown under her father and late President Park Chung-hee, a party official said Thursday.
The victims were mostly university students who opposed the dictatorship of then President Park, and the widespread belief is that the government arrested them to crack down on anti-government activities. A total of eight alleged members of "Inhyeokdang" or the People's Revolution Party, were executed in 1975 and 13 others sentenced to up to life imprisonment on charges of violating the National Security Law.
Park stirred up controversy earlier in the week after telling a radio interview the courts gave two verdicts on the case, apparently referring to the Supreme Court's initial ruling in 1975 and a district court's ruling in 2007 that cleared the eight execution victims of the charges.
Speaking on a local talk show program, Suh Byung-soo, the Saenuri Party's secretary general, said he believed Park is contemplating a meeting with the victims' families.
"(Park) has offered her sincere apologies and words of comfort on many occasions over the achievements and faults of the authoritarian days of the past," he said. "(I believe) she will continue to make sincere remarks on the painful history whenever she has a chance."
In an apparent effort to defuse the uproar, Park said she deeply understood the suffering of those oppressed and extended her sincere condolences to the victims' families through a party spokesman late Wednesday, but it remains unclear whether that amounted to a formal apology.
Park's historical judgment has constantly been put to the test as Koreans remain divided over her father's 18-year rule, which was marked by rapid industrialization in the aftermath of the 1950-53 Korean War but also brutal crackdowns on any form of dissent.
In July, Park said her father made "the best choice in an unavoidable situation" in reference to the 1961 military coup in which he took power. In 2007, she described the 1961 coup as a revolution to save the country. (Yonhap)