South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol last week pardoned 12 business leaders convicted of offences ranging from misappropriation of company funds to embezzlement with the aim of “revitalising the domestic economy”.
The Korean ritual of pardoning convicted executives and politicians is long established. Last year, Yoon issued a pardon to Samsung princeling Lee Jae-yong, who served 19 months in prison for his role in a bribery scandal that also led to the imprisonment of former conservative president Park Geun-hye.
What makes Yoon’s pardons intriguing, however, is his own past as a hardman prosecutor famous for investigating corporate malfeasance. It was Yoon himself who oversaw the prosecution of both Lee and Park.