Prime Minister Han Duck-soo remarked on July 27 that he would propose a presidential pardon for entrepreneurs. Attention is focusing on whether Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong and Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin will benefit from the proposal.
The expiration of the vice chairman’s terms is scheduled for July 29, and yet he will be subject to employment restriction for five years to come under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Economic Crimes. In other words, his normal management activities are impossible without amnesty and reinstatement. The vice chairman has been an unpaid director in his company since the 2016 South Korean political scandal.
The Federation of Korean Industries recently conducted a survey on entrepreneur pardon. Slightly over half of the 1,000 survey respondents answered in favor of freeing entrepreneurs and 37.2 percent answered doing so is unnecessary.