Jailed S. Korea Ex-Presidents to Get Pardons

In a bold step toward national reconciliation, President Kim Young Sam and his elected successor, Kim Dae Jung--both former dissidents--have agreed to pardon and release two former military-backed presidents imprisoned for mutiny, treason and bribery, the government announced today.

“President Kim Young Sam has decided to give special pardons in order to provide momentum for grand national reconciliation,” presidential spokesman Shin Woo Jae said in a nationally televised statement.

Former presidents Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo “will be given special pardons and restoration of civil rights,” Shin said.

Fifteen others imprisoned in cases linked to Chun and Roh will also be pardoned and freed, including 12 military officers serving prison terms ranging from 3 1/2 to eight years, Shin said. Eight other people who are already free will be pardoned and have their civil rights restored, he added.

The pardons and releases will be carried out Monday after they are approved by a Cabinet meeting, Shin said.

Chun and Roh were arrested in late 1995 for their roles in a 1979 mutiny and 1980 massacre and coup, and for amassing huge slush funds while in office. Chun was president from 1980 to 1988, and Roh held the office from 1988 to 1993, when he was succeeded by President Kim.

Chun was initially condemned to death, with that sentence reduced last year to life imprisonment. Roh’s original 22 1/2-year sentence was reduced to 17 years.

Chun and Roh, both former generals, were convicted of having masterminded a “creeping coup” that began with an army mutiny in 1979 and culminated in the 1980 massacre of hundreds of demonstrators in the southern city of Kwangju, the main city of the Cholla region that has always formed Kim Dae Jung’s political base.

The bribery convictions were for the two presidents’ acceptance of massive bribes and huge sums for political slush funds while they were in office.

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The inauguration of President-elect Kim will take place Feb. 25, and the pardoning of the imprisoned former presidents--which he had called for during the campaign--is seen as part of a bid to unite the country under his leadership.

“Reconciliation of our society has emerged as a very important task,” said Han Sang Jin, a sociologist at Seoul National University. Elimination of social confrontations between regions and between conservatives and progressives is necessary for the “opening of a new era,” Han said. “In that sense, I welcome the measure.”

There is no longer any need to keep the former presidents in prison because “punishment and clarification of the truth are separate,” Han added.

“Physical punishment alone is not the main punishment, but revealing the truth and clarifying who is responsible for what wrongs can also be a form of punishment,” Han said. This has now been accomplished, he said.

President Kim, in a statement quoted by spokesman Shin, said: “We must recall how much people shed their tears because of these crimes, which shamed the people and the country. This should not be repeated.”

Kim asked for “the people’s understanding and cooperation” so that those who are pardoned can “participate in opening and building a new era for this country.”

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Chun Kye Ryang, former chairman of an association of Kwangju families who lost relatives in the massacre, said that, with the election of Kim Dae Jung, “the situation has changed.”

“I think this measure will help achieve national reconciliation,” Chun Kye Ryang said. “In the past, when people who sided with the oppressors talked about pardoning Chun and Roh, we were angry. But now the victim wants to pardon them, and so we will go along with the idea.”

In Taegu, a southeastern city that lies in the heart of Chun’s and Roh’s political home base, an unidentified man speaking in a live street interview on KBS Television immediately after the announcement said: “We thank the President-elect Kim Dae Jung, and we welcome the measure. I think many people share my opinion that it will help achieve national harmony.”