South Korea pardons convicted execs, Hyundai boss

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea announced on Tuesday sweeping pardons for some of the country's most powerful businessmen, including the head of leading carmaker Hyundai Motor, saying they were needed to help revive a troubled economy.

They were on a list of 341,000 executives, politicians and bureaucrats subject to special pardons signed by President Lee Myung-bak to mark Friday's Liberation Day.

The Justice Ministry said it would pardon the heads of Hyundai Motor as well as the SK Group and Hanwha conglomerates, who were convicted of crimes such as fraud, embezzlement and assault.

"It is hoped that the businessmen would take the lead in reviving the economy by creating jobs through active investment and exploring markets abroad," the ministry said in a statement on the pardons.

Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Mong-koo, who controls Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) and Kia Motors (000270.KS), was found guilty last year of fraud, embezzlement and running a slush fund but stayed out of jail. His three-year sentence was suspended over concerns about a management vacuum at the carmaker.

SK chief Chey Tae-won, who leads companies such as SK Telecom (017670.KS) and SK Energy (096770.KS), had his three-year sentence for fraud suspended in 2004.

Hanwha boss Kim Seung-youn served a brief jail term for beating up bar workers who had assaulted his son before his sentence was suspended, also out of concern that jailing him would hurt Asia's fourth-largest economy.

Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee, who is contesting a tax evasion conviction, was not on the presidential pardon list.

"I am well aware of the criticism among some people and so it was a difficult decision," President Lee was quoted as saying by his spokesman at a cabinet meeting. "I'm personally against it.

"But I made the decision because of the fact that the executives are having problems doing business overseas and that investor sentiment is hardly robust."

The series of convictions that had been set aside fanned a long-running debate on the powerful and controversial "chaebol", or family-run conglomerates, which opponents say have been given preferential treatment.

The pardon also covered 10,400 convicted felons, including 12 politicians, erased punitive actions taken against 328,000 bureaucrats and restored the eligibility of 500 fishermen to apply for sailing licenses.

(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner and David Fogarty)