Sim Sang-jung: "Han Dong-hoon, Pardon to Revive Economy? Absurd"

Han Dong-hoon, Minister of Justice, explained the significance of this year's Liberation Day special pardon by saying it "focused on revitalizing the economy," which Justice Party lawmaker Sim Sang-jung criticized as "outrageous."

On the 14th, Sim said through her social media (SNS), "Why are corrupt businesspeople who have damaged South Korea's free market economic order and caused losses to companies through accounting fraud, embezzlement, and breach of trust deemed necessary for economic revitalization?"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the same day, the government granted a 'Liberation Day special pardon' effective on the 15th to 2,176 people, including small and medium-sized business owners, small merchants, ordinary criminal offenders, businesspeople, and politicians. The pardon included 12 businesspeople, among them Lee Joong-geun, founder of Booyoung Group, who was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison in August 2020 for embezzlement and breach of trust involving hundreds of millions of won.

However, Sim raised her voice, saying, "Have these chaebol heads ever properly repented for their crimes in front of the people?" and "This special pardon is nothing but a ‘justice for the rich, injustice for the poor’ pardon."

She added, "The Yoon Seok-yeol administration emphasized ‘walking with the weak.’ However, it has become clear that the weak whom President Yoon truly wants to walk with are the chaebol heads," and "The era of pardon rights reduced to issuing pardons for criminal businesspeople must end. President Yoon Seok-yeol should not hide behind irresponsible rhetoric about the exclusive presidential authority but present consistent standards and principles for pardons to the public."

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