MOON UNLIKELY TO GRANT SPECIAL PARDONS

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Attention has been on whether President Moon Jae-in would use his last pardons on ex-President Lee Myung-bak and a few other key figures. He he hasn’t made any comments about it so far. Consequently, it appears unlikely he will grant a presidential pardon before his term ends.

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President Moon Jae-in’s pardon criteria have been very clear. A presidential pardon should be granted only when it achieves judicial justice and that decision should be left solely to the people.

[Soundbite] Moon Jae-in(President(Apr. 25)) : "It is said that a pardon is a president’s exclusive right. But I don’t think it is a right that a president can exercise arbitrarily."

Last week when Moon answered public petitions, he said that equally many people are both for and against pardoning ex-President Lee Myung-bak. But public polls still show that unfavorable opinions substantially outnumber favorable ones. The same goes for pardoning former Gyeongsangnam-do Governor Kim Kyung-soo or Chung Kyung-shim, wife of ex-Justice Minister Cho Kuk. In comparison, people generally approve of pardoning business leaders, such as Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, despite strong protests from civic groups. Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice and People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy opposed pardoning Lee Jae-yong. It claims that conglomerates may appear as if they are above the law and the order of democracy and that repeatedly having exceptions to the application of laws and principles could never bring social unity. Lee Myung-bak’s case hardly meets Moon’s pardoning criteria of public consensus. There also isn’t enough time to undergo the necessary administrative procedures. In order to grant a pardon, it must be approved by the Justice Ministry’s pardon review committee and the Cabinet. But no instruction from the presidential office has yet been given to the ministry to convene a committee meeting. The consensus within Cheong Wa Dae is that it's virtually impossible to grant a pardon with only about a week left in Moon’s term.