美国国家公共电台 NPR South Korea's Ex-President Sentenced To 24 Years For Corruption

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

South Korea's former president may be spending the rest of her life in jail. A Seoul court handed down a 24-year sentence to Park Geun-hye on more than a dozen abuse of power and bribery¹ charges. That happened just hours ago. This is all part of a corruption² scandal that led to her ouster last year. NPR's Elise Hu is in Seoul with more on the verdict. Hey there, Elise.

ELISE HU, BYLINE³: Hey there.

INSKEEP: So what did the judges conclude?

HU: Well, the Seoul Central District Court has found Park on 16 out of 18 charges that were against her. Not only does she face the jail time, she also was slapped with a $17 million fine. And on top of the bribery and abuse of power charges you've mentioned, she's also guilty of coercion⁴ and leaking government secrets. That bribery charge is wrapped up with the nation's top conglomerates⁵ like Samsung. And the judge has found that Park and her confidant orchestrated an elaborate scheme to force those companies to pony⁶ up tens of millions of dollars into a slush fund in return for government favors.

INSKEEP: Well, Elise, I want to ask about the atmosphere here. I'm thinking about the United States, where there was a president who was ousted⁷, Richard Nixon, and his successor, Gerald Ford⁸, pardoned him because he said, look, putting a former president on trial - too traumatic, too awful for the country. This has to end. That was the decision he made. Clearly, a very different decision made in South Korea. What's it like to be there right now?

HU: Well, because she was removed from office already as part of this case, the expectation was that Park would be found guilty and stay in jail. But the reading of this verdict from the bench was a pretty dramatic moment, since it was the first time that a big trial like this - its verdict - was broadcast live on TV. So all over the country, people were sharing in this moment. A lot of taxi drivers in Seoul have TV screens on their dashboards, and so they had that on. We saw it in doctors' offices, cake shops. Everyone was watching this verdict being read out loud together.

INSKEEP: Wow. Did it affect the quality of traffic on Seoul's streets to everybody watching the TV screens while they should be driving their taxis?

HU: (Laughter) Traffic is always bad.

INSKEEP: I guess it couldn't be any worse, yeah. What does the former president have to say about all this, anyway?

HU: She's been denying all the charges. And while everybody else was watching this verdict, she wasn't. She refused to show up for her trial and the verdict today. This has been going on since last May, the trial itself. And today, Park remained in jail instead of appearing in court.

INSKEEP: Has this - very briefly⁹ - has this in any way distracted the new government, which is in the middle of some rather delicate negotiations¹⁰ with North Korea?

HU: Not so much. I would say that because a lot of these headlines were expected and the sentence was going - the trial was going to end one way or the other, the Moon administration has been focusing on its, you know, foreign policy in the run up to the April 27 summit between Moon Jae-in, the current president, and Kim Jong Un for the past few weeks now.

INSKEEP: NPR's Elise Hu is in Seoul. Elise, thanks.

HU: You bet.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE BEST PESSIMIST'S "MY LONG GOODBYE")

1 bribery   

n.贿络行为，行贿，受贿

参考例句：

• FBI found out that the senator committed bribery.美国联邦调查局查明这个参议员有受贿行为。
• He was charged with bribery.他被指控受贿。

2 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 coercion   

n.强制，高压统治

参考例句：

• Neither trickery nor coercion is used to secure confessions.既不诱供也不逼供。
• He paid the money under coercion.他被迫付钱。

5 conglomerates   

n.（多种经营的）联合大企业( conglomerate的名词复数 )；砾岩；合成物；组合物

参考例句：

• At the surface, radioactivity of the conglomerates is locally as high as 30 X background. 在地表，砾岩的局部地段的放射性高达30倍本底值。 来自辞典例句
• The conglomerates failed to understand that books could not be sold like soap. 这些联合大企业不懂卖书不象卖肥皂那样。 来自辞典例句

6 pony   

adj.小型的；n.小马

参考例句：

• His father gave him a pony as a Christmas present.他父亲给了他一匹小马驹作为圣诞礼物。
• They made him pony up the money he owed.他们逼他还债。

7 ousted   

驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺

参考例句：

• He was ousted as chairman. 他的主席职务被革除了。
• He may be ousted by a military takeover. 他可能在一场军事接管中被赶下台。

8 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

9 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

10 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。