Speaking on Arirang television after the verdict, Song Se-ryun, a law professor at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, said that the verdict ultimately found that no direct bribes were paid to Park and there was no personal gain on her part, which might explain why the judge didn’t sentence her to 30 years in prison. The judgement said that Park was guilty of receiving 7.2 billion won in bribes from Samsung, but couldn’t ascertain how much she used for herself.

The more important outcome of the Candlelight Revolution and Park’s sentencing, said Song, may be the way in which all the “imperfections” and “structural deficiencies” of Korea’s political system were exposed, which could in turn lead to improvements such as a recent proposal by president Moon Jae-in to weaken the power of the presidential office.

To that end, another test awaits Korea’s 30-year-old democracy—another former president is currently sitting in jail. Park’s predecessor Lee Myung-bak was arrested last month on corruption allegations. He has yet to be formally charged.

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