이 대통령의 임기 중 마지막 특별사면 단행 문제를 놓고 현 정부와 차기 정부의 의견이 충돌하면서 `박근혜 정부'의 출범을 한 달여 앞둔 정권 인수인계에 영향을 미칠 지 주목된다.
이명박 대통령이 이르면 내일 특별사면을 강행할 것으로 알려진 데 대해 박근혜 대통령 당선인이 "특별사면은 국민의 뜻을 거스르는 것"이라는 부정적인 견해를 밝혔다.
조윤선 인수위 대변인은 브리핑을 통해 "박 당선인이 국민정서에 반하는 비리사범과 부정부패자들에 대한 특별사면 강행에 대해 우려를 나타냈다"고 밝혔다.
인수위의 반대는 비리사건에 연루돼 형이 확정된 이 대통령의 측근들이 사면 대상으로 거명되는 상황에서 나온 것이다.
청와대가 "사면은 대통령 고유권한"이라고 반박했다. 청와대의 핵심 관계자는 연합뉴스와의 통화에서 "인수위가 사면에 대해 원칙적인 입장을 얘기한 것으로 이해하고 취지에 충분히 공감한다"면서도 "사면이라 는 것은 대통령의 고유 권한으로 법과 정해진 원칙에 따라 진행될 것"이라고 말했다.
이 관계자는 "앞서 현 정부에서 이뤄진 몇 건의 사면도 엄격한 원칙에 따라 진행됐다"면서 "이번에 거론되는 사면도 이 같은 원칙에서 검토되는 것"이라고 강조했다.
박 당선인은 지난 대선기간 경제민주화 공약의 하나로 대기업 지배주주ㆍ경영자 의 중대 범죄에 대해 사면권 행사를 제한하겠다고 밝힌 바 있으며, "대통령의 사면권을 분명하게 제한해 무분별하게 남용되지 않도록 해야 한다"고 말하기도 했다. (코리아헤럴드)
<영문 기사>
Park clashes with incumbent gov't over pardon plans
By Choi He-suk
President-elect Park Geun-hye and the Lee Myung-bak administration have clashed head-on over Lee‘s plans to issue special pardons.
On Monday, the transition team stepped up its opposition to the pardon plans citing Park’s disapproval.
“The president-elect is negative about (issuing) pardons at the end of the administration,” Cho Yoon-sun, a spokesperson for Park, said Monday. She added that the president-elect was showing “particularly strong concerns” for pardoning those imprisoned for corruption.
“(Park) is of the opinion that going ahead with the pardon is abusing the powers of the president and going against the will of the public.”
The comment comes two days after chief spokesman Yoon Chang-joong implied that Park was opposed to the pardon plans.
“Pardoning people linked to corruption will anger the public. (I) hope such pardons are not issued,” Yoon said on Saturday. He added that he had “conferred sufficiently” with Park on the issue.
President Lee is set to issue special pardons to about 50 individuals as early as Tuesday. As soon as the plans first surfaced earlier this month, the opposition parties have strongly opposed them and called on Park to personally prevent pardons being issued “without principle.”
For its part, Cheong Wa Dae has since said that the president’s relatives and close associates, and those involved in corruptions that took place after the launch of the current administration will not be among those pardoned in an effort to put to rest speculations that the president’s associates will be pardoned.
In addition to conveying uncharacteristically direct comments from Park, the transition committee has also revealed the minutes of transition team subcommittee meetings.
The minutes include the president-elect’s comments on her election pledges, as well as issues such as the Lee Myung-bak administration’s four major rivers restoration project, which Park had refrained from commenting directly on saying that they were the “domain of the incumbent government.”
The extensive records show Park saying that the four-rivers project needs to be “investigated objectively.” She is also on record as saying “reviving the middle-class through economic democratization is an important objective.”
While the transition team has said that revealing the records was “a decisive move to show the president-elect’s designs,” the developments may be part of a ploy to appease public sentiments.
The accusations of being “anti-communication” have been flung at Park soon after she clenched victory in the Dec. 19 election.
She had maintained near absolute secrecy in appointing aides and members of the transition committee, to the point that in some cases even the appointees were made aware minutes before official announcements.
Her choice of personnel has also come under fire from early on, sometimes for the concerned individual’s background and sometimes for being chosen without a proper vetting process.
The process of revealing Park’s government reorganization plans announced on Jan. 16 has also been criticized, with the main opposition Democratic United Party claiming that announcing the plans without consulting the parties was “disregarding the National Assembly.”
Fueled in part by the lack of communication and personnel appointments that failed to strike a chord with public opinion, Park’s approval rating has fallen far below those recorded by previous president-elects in recent history.
In Gallup Korea’s poll for the Jan. 14 to 18 period, 55 percent of the 1,559 respondents said that Park was doing a good job, while 19 percent said that she was not.
The reason most commonly chosen for negatively assessing Park’s activities was lack of communication at 23 percent, while 16 percent picked poor personnel management.
Realmeter survey placed her approval rating at 63.6 percent for the same period.
In comparison, the approval ratings for former presidents Kim Young-sam, Kim Dae-jung, Roh Moo-hyun and President Lee Myung-bak between election and inauguration stood at over 80 percent.
(
cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)
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