Nearly 60 percent of South Koreans oppose granting pardons to former President Lee Myung-bak and former South Gyeongsang Gov. Kim Kyoung-soo, a survey showed Wednesday.

According to the poll conducted by Data Research on 1,000 adults on Monday, 58.7 percent said they are against granting clemency to Lee and Kim, while 32.1 percent said they support pardoning the two.

The issue of their pardons surfaced ahead of a meeting Monday between President Moon Jae-in and President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, with aides to Yoon saying that the incoming president believes Lee should be pardoned.

But the issue did not come up during the meeting, officials said.

Kim, currently in jail for opinion rigging, is a close aide to Moon, and observers speculated that he could be pardoned together with Lee.

Asked whose job it is to decide their pardons, 43.5 percent said it is up to Yoon's incoming government, while 37.3 percent said it should be handled by the current Moon administration.

The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level. (Yonhap)