Goh Vetoes Amnesty Bill; Re-vote Seems Impossible

As for the revised law of amnesty decree that requires the opinions of the National Parliament in advance of the President’s actual decree of amnesty, the Prime Minister and Acting President, Goh Kun, on March 23 at the State Council, exercised his right of veto and required the second thought of the parliament, saying “Prohibiting the essential right of the president can violate the constitution.”

Goh also vetoed the revised bill of “Special ordinance to retrieve the reputations of the people related to the Geochang incident” and stated, “Considering the influence of the law, which would be the first time the government compensated civilians for damages in the Korean war, an enormous financial burden can be expected.”

As the Acting President Goh disclosed that “I will not exercise my right of amnesty during the acting president period,” the special amnesty for the six people related to the illegal remittance to North Korea, which was scheduled to be carried out on May 26, will probably be postponed if the decision of the constitutional court as to the Roh’s impeachment bill is delayed.

“Government should recognize indications of abusing the amnesty system, and restrain itself from exercising the right of amnesty that can violate the essence of judicial power,” remarked Goh, pointing out to the Ministry of Justice that “in order to secure the fairness and clearness of exercising the right of amnesty, government should establish an additional agency to consider the amnesty case, in which the judicial official can participate.”

According to this decision, GNP spokeswoman Jun Yeo-ok has criticized through her comment that “the bill of revising the amnesty law was designed to check the misappropriation of presidential rights. Legalism has been falling back because of this implementation of veto.”

On the other hand, a spokesman of Millennium Democratic Party said, “The GNP’s assertion to revise the amnesty law was originally unreasonable in some respects, and the government’s thought that it can violate the constitution is cogent to some extent.”

Though the GNP is considering the re-vote for the bill, the bill seems to be automatically destroyed because the MDP is negative about a revision of the law, and it is nearly impossible to hold a temporary session of parliament with the general election just 20 days ahead.

In advance of the state council on this day, Goh has informed to the parliament speaker Park Kwan-yong, and the four chiefs of the parties, that he would exercise his right of veto.

On the other hand, government has proclaimed the compensation law of the “Gwang-ju Democratic Movement,” which expands the period of application for compensation to May 31, and the compensation and reputation retrieval law of the democratic campaigns, which is to allow supporting money for the people who have been detained more than 30 days in prison.

Jung-Hun Kim Jong-Koo Yoon jnghn@donga.com jkmas@donga.com