SEOUL: South Korea’s first female prime minister was released from prison Wednesday after completing a two-year sentence for accepting illicit political funds. Han Myeong-Sook, now 73, was prime minister for a year from April 2006 under the liberal government of then-president Roh Moo-Hyun. She was the first woman to hold the post of prime minister in South Korea, and also the first former premier to be put behind bars. A few years later Park Geun-Hye — currently on trial for corruption after being ousted in a sprawling scandal — became South Korea’s first woman president. Han was convicted in 2015 of receiving 880 million won (then $760,000) from a businessman in illegal campaign funding for her eventually unsuccessful 2007 bid to secure her party’s presidential nomination. Han has denied any wrongdoing and accused the then-conservative government of using state prosecutors to tarnish her reputation. She was greeted by politicians and hundreds of supporters as she emerged from a detention centre on the outskirts of Seoul early Wednesday. “There has been insufferable pain during the past two years but I have finally met a new world and I am grateful,” she was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency. Published in Daily Times, August 24th 2017.