I think about this recent statement from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions all the damn time now:

On May 21, KCTU ex-president Han, Sang-gyun will be freed on parole, after serving 2 years, 5 months and 12 days in prison on charge stemming from protesting the corrupt Park Geun-hye government. The new government under President Moon, which was elected from the ‘candlelight movement’, spent one year and 12 days before it decided on the parole, at the time when Han has only 6 months and 20 days left to serve. In that sense, it is hard for us to express a simple ‘welcome’ on the news.

However, we won’t blame Moon’s government on this belated decision. Han, Sang-gyun already wrote from the prison, when he was excluded from the presidential pardon in last December, “I haven’t expected to be pardoned and I don’t want to blame the Government”, “It is true that the government promised that it would build a nation respects labour. However, if such a society is made not by the power of unity of our own, it is merely a mirage.” We reflect on ourselves rather than blame others, facing the fact that we are not powerful enough to make him be freed earlier. We will strive to build workers’ power.