[Editorial] Improper meeting
It was recently revealed that National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik visited the incarcerated former leader of the minor Rebuilding Korea Party earlier this month.
Woo met Cho Kuk in the Seoul Southern Correctional Institution on July 9, according to Yonhap News Agency on Saturday.
It was a special visit, known as a "visit with change of location" in Korean. Unlike regular inmate visits, which are limited to 30 minutes, there is no time limit. Special visits also take place in a more private setting furnished with sofas and chairs, compared to the standard visiting rooms with dividers, tables and chairs. Inmates are allowed to have physical contact with visitors as well.
The Assembly speaker is considered South Korea's second highest-ranking government official. It is exceptional for such a high-ranking official to visit a prison personally to meet with an inmate.
Woo's aides said his visit would have been inevitable in human terms. Cho had long been a political sponsor of Woo. In 2014, when former President Moon Jae-in was leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, they sat together on the party reform committee.
However, it is rash and improper for Woo to meet with Cho at such a delicate time, with the Aug. 15 Liberation Day special amnesty on the horizon. The Justice Ministry has reportedly started proceedings to select inmates who will be considered for special pardons on Liberation Day.
Cho was sentenced to two years in prison by the high court for forging documents that enabled his children to cheat their way into universities and graduate schools, and for prohibiting his office from looking into corruption allegations against then-Busan vice mayor Yoo Jae-soo when he was Moon's senior secretary for civil affairs. In December last year, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling. Cho demands that Lee pardon him.
He is scheduled to complete his sentence in December next year, but speculations over whether he will be granted a special amnesty next month are already attracting attention from politicians and the general public. Kang Deuk-gu, a Democratic Party lawmaker, on Saturday publicly demanded the Liberation Day special amnesty for Cho.
Woo's prison visit raises suspicions about whether the speaker is trying to foster an atmosphere conducive to a pardon for Cho.
Cho is not serving a prison term because of his political beliefs or actions related to the pro-democracy movement.
If he is pardoned, a storm of controversy will arise over whether it is right to release a person locked up for purely personal crimes, such as those related to his children's admission irregularities.
Furthermore, Cho has not admitted his faults and appears to have no regrets about his wrongdoings.
Woo should think carefully about the crimes Cho is being punished for. He should look back on whether his special visit to an inmate convicted of a crime that angered people across the nation matches the level of integrity required of the Assembly speaker.
Kang argued that if Cho had not stepped into politics and not called for reform of the prosecution, he would not be serving a jail term. The Democratic Party lawmaker also said that Cho became the target of attacks by politically motivated prosecutors, but Cho was not convicted on those charges.
Fairness is another problem. It goes against public sentiment to see a prisoner pardoned after serving only about a quarter of their jail term. Pardoning a convict who has not yet served half of their prison term is rare.
Earlier, Woo had aroused controversy over his dignity as the Assembly speaker by attending "The Powerful," a large-scale talk show hosted by Kim Eo-jun in Incheon last month.
Kim is a media personality criticized for habitually causing conflict among the Korean people by spreading unverified news and raising conspiracy theories about many issues, including the Sewol ferry disaster, and making partisan news comments favoring the Democratic Party.
Woo's show of friendship with a biased, divisive agitator causes people to raise an eyebrow. It is also doubtful that he is unaware of the many people angered by Cho's hypocrisy and crimes, now that the Democratic Party has practically dominated the legislative and executive branches. He seems to take the role of Assembly speaker too lightly.
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