Thai ex-PM Thaksin to visit S. Korea

Thai ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is expected to arrive here on Tuesday to pay a three- day visit to South Korea, Seoul's Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime said Monday. The visit will bring Thaksin to sites of South Korea's four- river restoration project, aimed at refurbishing the country's four main rivers -- the Han, Nakdong, Geum and Yeongsan, to investigate Seoul's river harnessing and flood control countermeasures, the ministry said. The Thai government, led by Thaksin's sister Yingluck Shinawatra, is looking to South Korea's four-river restoration project, as the most severe deluge in over 50 years has lashed 64 out of 77 provinces in Thailand following back-to-back tropical storms and heavy monsoon rains, the ministry said, noting that Thai's Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul visited the same project in October. Thaksin is scheduled to leave South Korea on Thursday, it added. The 62-year-old ex-prime minister, whose government was toppled by a military coup in 2006, has since lived in exile. In 2008, Thaksin was sentenced in absentia to two years in jail for abusing power to help his ex-wife purchase a state-owned land plot in Bangkok. Last Tuesday, Thai government allegedly passed a draft amnesty decree that would bring royal pardon to Thaksin and pave the way for the ex-Prime Minister's return from self-imposed exile, sparking threats of street protests from opponents. On Monday, Thailand's Justice Minister Pracha Promnok said the proposed amnesty will exclude convicts of corruption and those who absconded, which means Thaksin will not be eligible for pardon.