Park Yong-sung restored as an IOC member after corruption scandal

The IOC executive board announced in a meeting in Beijing that it decided to lift the suspension against

South Korea's Park Yong Sung, but did not cite a clear reason. Park Yong-sung, former chairman of the family-run Doosan Group, was restored as a member of the International Olympic Committee 13 months after the committee suspended his membership over a corruption scandal in March 2006.

The IOC Executive Board approved the Ethics Commission's recommendation and decided that Park "violated the ethical principles set out in the Olympic Charter and the IOC code of Ethics, has tarnished the reputation of the Olympic Movement and was thereby in breach of the Olympic Charter and the IOC Code of Ethics," said a statement.

Park, 67, had been suspended as an IOC member after he was convicted of embezzling millions of dollars amidst a family dispute over the group's management control.

In February 2007, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun decided to give a special pardon for Park, among other business criminals. In 2005, Park was given a three-year suspended jail sentence and an $8.5 million fine by the Seoul District Court for raising slush funds and inflating balance sheets, writes the Korea Herald.

Park states in a press release that he will do his best now that South Korea are competing with Austria and Russia to host the Winter Olympics in 2014. After Park’s return, Pyeongchang and South Korea gets another vote, when the IOC decides who gets the Winter Olympics on 4^th of July.

IOC spokesperson Giselle Davies told reporters that Park will have no right to be elected to any commission of the IOC for five years.

"It has been a lengthy process because he has been accused of certain issues in his country and he was appealing that he was in fact amnestied in his country. Nevertheless the Ethics Commission ruled that he had violated the ethical principles and hence the decision," said Davies to the news agency Xinhua.