SOUTH Korean President Moon Jae-in has pardoned former president Park Geun-hye, who has been imprisoned over corruption charges for 57 months, said the Justice Ministry today, as reported by Xinhua.

Park is among 3,094 inmates on the current president’s special amnesty list for the New Year.

Park was sentenced to a combined 22-year prison term, and has been in prison since March 2017, after being impeached and removed from office over corruption charges.

Moon said the country needs national unity and humble inclusiveness, given that it is facing a lot of challenges, according to the Blue House.

He said he considered Park’s deteriorated health, and hopes that the pardon will become an opportunity for national unity and harmonisation and a new era that goes beyond the difference of thoughts.

Park, 69, will be released from a hospital in Seoul on December 31. She has been hospitalised due to chronic shoulder and waist pain for a month. She had surgery on her shoulder in 2019.

Han Myeong-sook, who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2007 under the liberal Roh Moo-hyun government, is also on the list. She was convicted of bribery in 2015 and completed her two-year prison term in 2017.

Han, 77, had at first claimed innocence, saying that the charges against her were fabricated as a political revenge against the Roh administration by the conservative bloc.

Ruling Democratic Party chief Song Young-gil said his party respects Moon’s decision, noting that the pardons are the president’s unique constitutional right.

People Power Party, the main conservative opposition, also welcomed the pardon, saying that the party will make more efforts for national unity.

Former president Lee Myung-bak, who has been serving a 17-year prison term after being convicted of bribery and embezzlement in October last year, has been excluded from the list.

Justice Minister Park Beom-kye told a press briefing that the circumstances are different between former presidents Park and Lee, saying that the public sentiment has also been taken into consideration to make the decision. – Bernama, December 24, 2021.