Crisis to brink of impeachment: South Korea’s isolated President Yoon
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Mr Yoon Suk Yeol’s presidency of South Korea has been a rollercoaster of scandals and disasters.
PHOTO: AFP
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SEOUL – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has staggered from one crisis to another since winning power, but he topped it all this week by declaring martial law
The plunge back to South Korea’s dark days of military rule only lasted a few hours and after a night of protests and high drama Mr Yoon was forced into a U-turn in the early hours of Dec 4.
But polls show a large majority of citizens want him out and lawmakers were due to vote on Dec 7 on an impeachment motion brought by the opposition, who control Parliament.
But it was unclear whether the Bill would garner the sufficient two-thirds majority to pass, with Mr Yoon’s ruling People Power Party (PPP) apparently split.
This is despite the PPP’s leader Han Dong-hoon – allegedly on an arrest list the night of the martial law declaration – saying Mr Yoon’s resignation was “inevitable”.
On Dec 7 before the vote, Mr Yoon spoke publicly
Instead, the 63-year-old said he would “entrust the party with measures to stabilise the political situation, including my term in office”.
Born in dictatorship
Born in Seoul in 1960, months before a military coup, Mr Yoon studied law and went on to become a star public prosecutor and anti-corruption crusader.
He played an instrumental role in Park Geun-hye – South Korea’s first female president – being convicted of abuse of power, imprisoned and impeached in 2016.
As the country’s top prosecutor in 2019, he also indicted a top aide of Park’s successor, Moon Jae-in, in a fraud and bribery case.
The conservative People Power Party, in opposition at the time, liked what they saw and convinced Mr Yoon to become their presidential candidate.
He duly won in March 2022, beating Mr Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party but by the narrowest margin in South Korean history.
Halloween to handbag
Mr Yoon was never much loved by the public, in particular by women – he vowed on the campaign trail to abolish the Ministry of Gender and Equality – and he has lurched from scandal to scandal.
This included his administration’s handling of a 2022 crowd crush during Halloween festivities
Voters have also blamed Mr Yoon’s administration for food inflation, a lagging economy and increasing constraints on freedom of speech.
He was accused of abusing presidential vetoes, notably to strike down a Bill paving the way for a special investigation into alleged stock manipulation by his wife, First Lady Kim Keon Hee.
Mr Yoon suffered further reputational damage in 2023 when his wife was secretly filmed accepting a designer handbag worth US$2,000 (S$2,700) as a gift.
His mother-in-law Choi Eun-soon was sentenced to one year in prison for forging financial documents in a real estate deal. She was released in May.
Mr Yoon himself was the subject of a petition calling for his impeachment earlier in 2024, which proved so popular the parliamentary website hosting it experienced delays and crashes.
You can sing!
Local media has reported that Mr Yoon is particularly enamoured of British wartime prime minister Winston Churchill.
As president, Mr Yoon has maintained a tough stance against nuclear-armed North Korea and bolstered ties with the US, Seoul’s traditional ally.
In 2023, he sang Don McLean’s American Pie during a visit to the White House,
But his efforts to restore ties with South Korea’s former colonial ruler, Japan, did not sit well with many at home, as the issue remains sensitive in the country.
Lame duck
Mr Yoon has been a lame duck president since the opposition Democratic Party won a majority in parliamentary elections in 2024. They recently slashed Mr Yoon’s budget.
In his Dec 3 late-night televised address to the nation, Mr Yoon railed against “anti-state elements plundering people’s freedom and happiness” and his office has subsequently cast his imposition of martial law as a bid to break through legislative gridlock.
But to use his political difficulties as justification for imposing martial law for the first time in South Korea since 1980 is absurd, an analyst said.
“(This) is typically reserved for situations like war, emergencies, or other similar concerns regarding threats to national security,” said Stanford University Professor Gi-Wook Shin.
“This situation will test the strength of Korea’s liberal democratic institutions and their ability to counter such actions,” he said.
“It also sends a broader message to Korean politicians and democracies worldwide that political goals cannot be pursued through such undemocratic means.” AFP
