Gwangju Mayor Expresses Support for Lee Jae-myungS Call for Pardons, Draws Parallels to Past Presidential Cases
Gwangju Metropolitan City Mayor Kang Ki-jung publicly voiced his support for Democratic party leader Lee Jae-myung‘s proposal regarding pardons, specifically referencing former president Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo. The statement, made on August 11, 2025, via Facebook, comes as the state Council was expected to discuss the matter on November 11, 2025.
Kang Ki-jung, Gwangju Metropolitan Market Facebook
Mayor Kang, who previously served as chief executive under former Democratic Party representative Min Jung-su during the Moon Jae-in administration, shared his own experience with pardons. He was initially sentenced to eight years imprisonment in May 1985, while chairman of Sammintu at Chonnam National University in Gwangju, and later received a pardon in 1988.
In a Facebook post around 8:20 am on August 11th, Mayor Kang described a pardon as “a hope for a person who is trapped,” despite acknowledging it as a “political Ash street.” He was anticipating the potential visit of the former representative of the country.
The article draws a past comparison to the cases of Chun Doo-hwan and roh Tae-woo, who were arrested in 1995 during the Kim Young-sam administration on charges of rebellion and sentenced to 17 years in prison. Both were ultimately pardoned on December 20, 1997, just two days before Kim Dae-jung assumed the presidency. This established a precedent of high-profile political figures receiving pardons even after final convictions.
roh Tae-woo and former President Chun Doo-hwan. Daily newspaper DB
Mayor Kang further stated his hope that the potential release of the former representative would coincide with legal repercussions for President Yoon Seok-yeol and First Lady kim Kun-hee. He specifically mentioned the possibility of Kim Kun-hee facing an arrest warrant, which would create the first instance of a former presidential couple being incarcerated in South Korean history.
He framed his support for Lee Jae-myung’s position as a means to “correct prosecution dictatorship and restore judicial justice.” The Democratic Party’s push for pardons is occurring amidst ongoing political tensions and scrutiny of the current administration.