In a lunchtime meeting scheduled for Wednesday at Cheong Wae Dae, President Moon Jae-in will meet with President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, according to the presidential office on Tuesday. Yoon will petition the government for the pardon of former President Lee Myung-bak.
The encounter between the two is the first in seven days after the presidential election and the first in 21 months since Yoon visited Cheong Wa Dae to attend the Anti-Corruption Policy Council in 2020, when he was the prosecutor general. Yoon has not met with Moon since the election.
According to Cheong Wa Dae, the meeting will be held without any attendees in order to allow for a more candid discussion.
Yoon's spokesperson, Kim Eun-hye, stated during a morning briefing on the same day that the former president, Lee Myung-bak, will be granted clemency.
According to Kim, Yoon has been mulling over the possibility of seeking the pardon of former President Lee Myung-bak for quite some time. In order to achieve national unity and harmony, we hope that this meeting will serve as a catalyst.
In October 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States sentenced Lee to 17 years in prison for bribery and embezzlement.
Since granting amnesty to former President Park Geun-hye in December of last year, President Moon has made no public statements on the issue of Lee's pardon or clemency. The potential exists, though, that Moon would grant Lee's request on Buddha's Birthday, which comes on May 9 this year, a day before his tenure expires.
In addition to Lee's release, there is speculation that Kim Kyung-soo, the former governor of South Gyeongsang Province, may also be pardoned as a result of the release of Lee. After pleading guilty to computer business obstruction in July, Moon's close aide Kim was sentenced to two years in prison by the Supreme Court.
The People Power Party's Kwon Sung-dong claimed in a radio broadcast on Tuesday that he was "100 percent certain" that both Lee and Kim would be pardoned if they were found guilty. "Lee was left (in prison) to save Moon's close aide Kim while also pardoning both of them at the same time," he explained.
In a radio interview broadcast on Tuesday morning, Kim Ki-hyun, floor leader of the People Power Party, asked for the pardon of Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who is now on administrative leave.
Samsung, according to Kim, is not a local corporation at the moment, but it is on a size that controls the Korean economy in a manner. Taking it into consideration in the context of Korea's overall economic structure is essential.
In addition to the amnesty issue, the conference is slated to address the amended supplementary budget for COVID-19, compensation for self-employed persons and small company owners, and North Korea's missile provocations, among other topics.
