Impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers an handle earlier than being detained to be questioned over his martial legislation fiasco on the presidential residence in Seoul, Jan. 15. Courtesy of presidential workplace
Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol rose from star prosecutor to the presidency in just some years, however after a collection of scandals and a bungled martial legislation decree, he is turn into the nation’s first-ever sitting president to be arrested.
The lurch again to Korea’s darkish days of navy rule on December 3 solely lasted just a few hours, and after an evening of protests and excessive drama Yoon was pressured right into a U-turn by lawmakers.
He has since been impeached — pending a courtroom trial that started this week — and resisted arrest till Wednesday, when he backed all the way down to investigators after a tense, weeks-long political standoff.
He mentioned the investigators didn’t have the authority to arrest him and that he had solely complied to avert „bloodshed“ — however his identify is now etched in historical past.
In addition to the primary sitting Korean president to be arrested, he’s the third to be impeached by parliamentary vote, and, if upheld by the Constitutional Courtroom, could be the second to be faraway from workplace.
On this Might 10, 2022 picture, President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers a speech on the presidential inauguration ceremony at Nationwide Meeting, Seoul. Korea Occasions file
Born in dictatorship
Born in Seoul in 1960 months earlier than a navy coup, Yoon studied legislation and went on to turn into a public prosecutor and anti-corruption crusader.
He performed an instrumental function in Park Geun-hye, Korea’s first feminine president, being impeached in 2016 and later convicted for abuse of energy and imprisoned.
Because the nation’s high prosecutor in 2019, he additionally indicted a senior aide of Park’s successor, Moon Jae-in, in a fraud and bribery case.
The conservative Individuals Energy Occasion (PPP), in opposition on the time, preferred what they noticed and satisfied Yoon to turn into their presidential candidate.
He gained in March 2022, beating Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Occasion of Korea, however by the narrowest margin in Korean historical past.
Halloween to purse
Yoon was by no means a lot cherished by the general public, particularly by girls — he vowed on the marketing campaign path to abolish the ministry of gender equality — and scandals have come thick and quick.
This included his administration’s dealing with of a 2022 crowd crush throughout Halloween festivities that killed greater than 150 individuals.
Voters have additionally blamed Yoon’s administration for meals inflation, a lagging economic system and growing constraints on freedom of speech.
He was accused of abusing presidential vetoes, notably to strike down a invoice paving the way in which for a particular investigation into alleged inventory manipulation by his spouse, Kim Keon Hee.
Yoon suffered additional reputational harm in 2023 when his spouse was secretly filmed accepting a designer purse value $2,000 as a present. Yoon insisted it will have been impolite to refuse.
His mother-in-law, Choi Eun-soon, was sentenced to 1 yr in jail for forging monetary paperwork in an actual property deal. She was launched in Might 2024.
Yoon himself was the topic of a petition calling for his impeachment final yr, which proved so fashionable the parliamentary web site internet hosting it skilled delays and crashes.
On this picture taken on April 26, 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden, left, presents a guitar signed by artist Don McLean to Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol at an official State Dinner, throughout Yoon’s go to on the White Home in Washington, U.S. Reuters-Yonhap
‚You’ll be able to sing‘
As president, Yoon has maintained a tricky stance towards nuclear-armed North Korea and bolstered ties with Seoul’s conventional ally, america.
In 2023, he sang Don McLean’s „American Pie“ on the White Home, prompting US President Joe Biden to reply: „I had no rattling concept you possibly can sing.“
However his efforts to revive ties with Korea’s former colonial ruler, Japan, didn’t sit effectively with many at house.
Yoon has been a lame duck president for the reason that opposition Democratic Occasion of Korea gained a majority in parliamentary elections in April final yr. They just lately slashed Yoon’s funds.
In his televised handle declaring martial legislation, Yoon railed towards „anti-state components plundering individuals’s freedom and happiness“, and his workplace has subsequently forged his imposition of martial legislation as a bid to interrupt by legislative gridlock.
However to make use of his political difficulties as justification for imposing martial legislation for the primary time in Korea for the reason that Eighties was absurd, an analyst mentioned.
„Yoon invoked Article 77 of the Korean structure, which permits for proclaiming martial legislation however is reserved for ‚time of battle, armed battle or related nationwide emergency‘, none of which seems evident,“ Bruce Klingner, a senior analysis fellow on the Heritage Basis, informed AFP.
„Yoon’s motion is a damning reversal to many years of Korean efforts to place its authoritarian previous behind it,“ he mentioned. (AFP)
