Finance minister 'conveyed' request to pardon Lee Jae-yong

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Finance

Tue, October 3, 2023 | 04:03

Economy

Finance minister 'conveyed' request to pardon Lee Jae-yong

Posted : 2021-04-20 16:19

Updated : 2021-04-20 21:11

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki answers a lawmaker's question at the National Assembly, Tuesday. Yonhap

By Kim Yoo-chul

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Tuesday that he conveyed to the "parties in charge" requests from the country's business lobby groups for a presidential pardon for Samsung Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong.

"Only the President can grant a pardon. Regarding the possibility of a pardon for Samsung Vice Chairman Lee, I've met with the heads of economic lobby groups for discussions on how to explore ways to achieve an economic recovery, and one of the attendees suggested the idea of pardoning Lee. That message has been forwarded to institutions in charge quite adequately," Minister Hong told lawmakers at the National Assembly.

After candidates of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) failed to win mayoral by-elections in the country's two largest cities, the ruling party and Cheong Wa Dae have been struggling to find new options to prevent Moon's approval rating from falling further.

Moon is set to hold his first face-to-face meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House late next month. Because the ongoing global shortage of semiconductors is causing huge supply problems across a wide variety of industries in the United States, Biden recently met the chiefs of major semiconductor companies online and asked them to invest more in chip plants in America. Samsung said it is looking at the "right timing" for a massive investment in the United States.

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Biden wants to maintain Washington's lead over Beijing in the development of memory chips and Samsung's huge investment plans could be facilitated with its imprisoned vice chairman back at the helm given Samsung's hierarchical decision-making system. As a result, Korean business leaders are hoping President Moon will pardon Lee and allow him to speed up the investment.

Lee was sentenced to two and a half years in prison over bribing impeached President Park Geun-hye. The Samsung chief has been barred from working at Samsung for five years once he's released from jail, though this ban remains debatable.

Amid a flurry of massive investment plans by rivals Intel and Taiwan's TSMC, Samsung is facing pressure to respond to Biden and President Moon's calls, and both of them are voicing the importance of semiconductors for national security.

"The possibility of Lee's pardon has been passed to the person in charge," the finance minister said in response to a question from a lawmaker. Samsung is close to announcing a massive 70 trillion won investment plan both in the United States and Korea.

yckim@koreatimes.co.kr