JY Pardoned, Moon Turns a Blind Eye... Baton Pass to New Government with 6G and Semiconductors

Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong's Carefully Crafted Business
A Key Pillar of Yoon Administration's National Agenda

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] With President Moon Jae-in not using the special pardon card until the last day of his term, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong will ultimately face the new administration under parole status. Since the 6G and semiconductor projects that Vice Chairman Lee has been diligently promoting are included as key pillars in the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's 110 national tasks, there is a prevailing sentiment that a path should be opened for Lee to return to management, even if it is through the Liberation Day special pardon in August.

According to the business community on the 9th, Vice Chairman Lee will attend the inauguration ceremony of the 20th president on the 10th under parole status, as a pardon and reinstatement during President Moon's term failed. Although his sentence for the state manipulation case expires on July 29, allowing him to be on parole, he will be able to attend the inauguration as the top figure of Samsung, the number one company in the business world.

Not only Vice Chairman Lee but also business leaders such as SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun, and LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo will attend the inauguration and hold a separate meeting with President-elect Yoon at the inauguration dinner. This is the first time in history that major conglomerate heads have been invited to a government inauguration dinner. Since six heads of economic organizations, including Huh Chang-soo, Chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries, Son Kyung-sik, Chairman of the Korea Employers Federation, and Koo Ja-yeol, Chairman of the Korea International Trade Association, who have emphasized the need for pardoning business leaders for Korea's economic growth, will also attend, requests for pardons of business leaders including Vice Chairman Lee are expected to follow.

In the business community, there is also consideration that President-elect Yoon may use the presidential prerogative of pardon after inauguration to reinstate Vice Chairman Lee through the August 15 Liberation Day special pardon. Even if Vice Chairman Lee completes his sentence and is released at the end of July, he cannot engage in normal management activities due to a five-year employment restriction.

Since SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won was also released through the 2015 Liberation Day special pardon, there is growing expectation that President-elect Yoon, who has pledged to create a business-friendly environment, may lift Vice Chairman Lee's employment restrictions.

In fact, Samsung is regarded as holding the key to achieving the new government's goal of nurturing new industries, with 6G and semiconductors identified as future growth engines. Samsung Electronics, which succeeded in commercializing 5G for the first time in the world, announced the '6G Frequency White Paper' for the first time yesterday and proposed global research to secure frequencies for next-generation 6G communication services.

Samsung Electronics released the '6G Frequency White Paper: Expansion of the Frequency Domain' on the Samsung Research website, suggesting that discussions and related research on 6G frequencies should be conducted globally from now on to prepare for the long-term commercialization of 6G.

Vice Chairman Lee, who has selected and fostered 5G as a future growth business, recently achieved a contract to supply 5G communication equipment worth 1 trillion won with a U.S. company and has been preparing to play a market-leading role by forming a 6G-related team for the past two years.

The semiconductor business also aligns with the goals of the new government and Samsung. The Yoon administration has set securing a semiconductor super-gap and creating a new gap as one of its national tasks to expand semiconductor exports by more than 30% by 2027, requiring bold semiconductor investments and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) by Samsung Electronics, the number one semiconductor company.

An industry insider said, "If Vice Chairman Lee continues to face restrictions on management participation, Samsung's ability to make large-scale investment and M&A decisions will be limited. Since U.S. President Biden is expected to visit Korea on the 20th of this month and request semiconductor cooperation with the new government, the new administration will inevitably have to consider Vice Chairman Lee's situation."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.