his may – may not – be a big deal. This is not the first time we have seen a blatantly guilty chaebol chairman sent off to jail – only months, if not weeks, later to be given pardon due to health, humanitarian and/or national economic reasons.
Since this the first major such conviction under the new president’s administration, observers can only hope that the guilty will actually be punished rather than allowed to continue to operatie on a different plane as Korea’s Masters of the Universe.
Together with new chaebol power-curtailing laws, we may be seeing the beginning of something significant. But those laws need to be enforced as does sentencing not allowed to become a mockery of justice.
Does the first female president have the cojones to stand up to the all-powerful chaebol?
Only time will tell.
South Korean Executive’s Arrest Seen as Move to Tame Conglomerates
By CHOE SANG-HUN
The New York Times
July 2, 2013
