The government was to pardon more than 30,000 convicts...

The government was to pardon more than 30,000 convicts in order to promote national reconciliation on the anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule. A total of 3,586 prisoners were to be freed, while others were to have their sentences reduced or civil rights restored, the Justice Ministry said. Two death-row inmates were to have their sentences reduced to life imprisonment. Noting the controversy surrounding capital punishment, presidential aides said the commutation did not mean that the death penalty was not necessary. They said the two death-row inmates were included in the pardon in a humanitarian spirit. The amnesty was the largest since the government pardoned 5.52 million people in 1998.