Seoul – Around 800 people will be able to walk out of prison on Saturday, when pardons are traditionally pronounced in South Korea on August 15, the national independence day. By far the best-known, most important and most controversial case among them is that of Lee Jae-yong, head of the multi-corporation Samsung and by far the richest person in the East Asian industrial state. It is widely said in the country that it is not only Lee’s financial prosperity that is unmatched in South Korea, but also his power. And the pardon of the man who bribed previous President Park Geun-hye for approving a company merger and who is currently pending further proceedings for stock price manipulation, has shown this again.
In any case, government circles in the capital Seoul are convinced that the country will not get through the crisis without the Samsung boss. The Samsung group is by far the largest conglomerate in the East Asian industrial nation. The annual turnover of around 260 billion US dollars corresponds to almost a fifth of the South Korean gross domestic product. But the country also groans again and again that Samsung is misusing its economic power to create political power. South Koreans often cynically refer to their country as the “Samsung Republic.”
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