The main opposition People Power Party(PPP) lambasted the Lee Jae Myung administration for including former minor Rebuilding Korea Party leader Cho Kuk and former ruling Democratic Party(DP) Rep. Youn Mee-hyang on its list of presidential pardons ahead of Liberation Day this week.

In a statement on Monday, PPP chief spokesperson Park Sung-hoon said President Lee Jae Myung has decided to "bury a dagger" in the hearts of the people marking Liberation Day through a collapse of justice, adding that the day's indignity will carry a stigma for the administration.

Park said a significant number of politicians and former officials from the Moon Jae-in administration — Cho, Youn, former DP Rep. Choe Kang-wook, and former Environment Minister Kim Eun-kyung — have been pardoned, suggesting that the amnesty was not for "national unity," but for those on the ruling side.

Park accused Cho of being a deliberate and shameless offender who crushed young people’s dreams through irregularities in his children’s university admissions, adding that the Lee administration has no standing to speak of justice after pardoning him.

The spokesperson also criticized the administration for pardoning Youn, who has not only denounced the Supreme Court for upholding her conviction of embezzling donations to Korean victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery, but also has yet to return the embezzled funds.