Hong Joon-pyo: "Park Geun-hye is a decent person... Is it right to drag her into the political arena?"

Published 25 Dec.2021 19:28(KST)

Hong Joon-pyo, Member of the People Power Party [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] Hong Joon-pyo, a member of the People Power Party, stated that the possibility of former President Park Geun-hye, who was specially pardoned, returning to politics is "not appropriate."

On the 25th, when a netizen asked in the Q&A section of his online platform 'Youth's Dream' whether he had plans to meet with former President Park, Hong replied, "No," and said this. He added, "It is not appropriate to drag her into the political arena any further," warning against attempts to use former President Park in this presidential election.

In addition, when asked about his thoughts on former President Park, Hong described her as a "decent person." Regarding his relationship with her, he said, "We were each going our own way, and it was neither particularly good nor bad."

Regarding former President Lee Myung-bak being excluded from the special pardon, he referred to it as "revenge battle."

Earlier, Hong had described the pardon of former President Park as a "late lament" (mansijitan, 晩時之歎).

On the previous day, through his Facebook, Hong stated, "The former president, who was impeached due to political investigations, was imprisoned throughout her term, and former President Roh Moo-hyun’s investigation was retaliated against by imprisoning former President Lee Myung-bak through political investigations," adding, "Now, as the term ends, it seems they got scared."

He continued, "This time, by dividing the two former presidents with separate pardons to incite division in the opposition camp is truly a cunning trick," and criticized, "Using a divide-and-conquer strategy to make the opposition choose a candidate and then another divide-and-conquer tactic to split the opposition’s presidential front is astonishing."