Over 50% against Moon pardoning Park

Former President Park Geun-hye delivers a speech at Cheong Wa Dae, apologizing for the government's mishandling of the Sewol ferry disaster on May 19, 2014, a month after the tragic accident. Korea Times file

By Jung Da-min

More than half of South Koreans surveyed are still against a pardon for former President Park Geun-hye, who was sentenced to 24 years in prison in April 2018. Park was found guilty of a number of charges including bribery, abuse of power and mishandling state secrets.

According to a poll of 1,000 adults conducted by South Korean broadcaster MBN from Nov. 3 to 4, 54 percent of respondents said they were against a pardon for Park, while 40.3 percent said they supported it.

The poll, which has a 95 percent confidence level with a plus or minus 3.1 percentage point margin of error, came at a time when controversies have reignited surrounding an alleged martial law plan by the former administration to crack down on the popular candlelit protests against Park in early 2017 in the eventuality Park was acquitted in the impeachment process.

On Sunday in a meeting to mark the halfway point of Moon’s five-year term, Chief of Staff Noh Young-min told reporters that a presidential pardon of high-profile politicians is “only possible when there is a consensus from the public to do so or it is necessary.”

“Cheong Wa Dae is prepared at all times just in case but that doesn’t necessarily mean we are considering granting presidential pardons anytime soon. That’s a separate issue,” Noh said.

The Center for Military Human Rights Korea, a civic watchdog for military human rights, has raised allegations that main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) leader Hwang Kyo-ahn, who served as acting president while Park went through the impeachment process, was involved in the contingency plan to suppress the protests, disclosing 11 documents related to the martial law plan.

The National Assembly Intelligence Committee confirmed the existence of the 11 documents, Nov. 5, after its annual audit of the Defense Security Support Command conducted at the National Police Agency in Seoul. The Defense Security Support Command had been known as the Defense Security Command when it allegedly created the martial law plan.

But the committee’s members from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the LKP showed different views on the documents.

Committee member Rep. Kim Min-ki of the DPK said the 11 documents contain an analysis of state of affairs at the time and assignments for the Defense Security Command, Cheong Wa Dae and other government departments.

Kim said he cannot reveal the specific details citing confidentiality, but said he thinks the Defense Security Command crossed the line in creating the plan, which he stated was beyond the scope of its duties.

But another committee member Rep. Lee Eun-jae of the LKP said the 11 documents were not about a martial law plan nor a military coup but just general reports on the state of affairs at the time.

Controversies over the documents are likely to continue as the military human rights watchdog and opposition lawmakers are each accusing that the other of “lying” to the public.

Meanwhile, the DPK is calling for the resumption of the investigation into the alleged plan which has been put on hold since November 2018, four months after it kicked off.

The suspension came after the investigation failed to question Cho Hyun-chun, a key figure in the scandal and former chief of the Defense Security Command, who fled to the United States.