Impeachments, coups and deaths: The dark side of South Korean presidency

SEOUL – President Yoon Suk Yeol on Dec 7

narrowly survived impeachment

as his ruling People Power Party united in the National Assembly to thwart the opposition’s effort to oust him from office.

This offers Mr Yoon only momentary relief, however, as

opposition parties have threatened to push for his impeachment again

over his declaration of martial law.

The short-lived martial law decree, along with an array of controversies, including legal risks related to his wife, have already made Mr Yoon part of the troubled history of South Korean presidents.

The following is a list of South Korean presidents whose careers were marked by disgrace or tragedy.

Park Geun-hye, the first South Korean president to be impeached

Park Geun-hye, who became South Korea’s first female president in 2013, was also the first sitting president to be impeached and removed from office.

A political scandal in the fall of 2016 uncovered a myriad of irregularities in her administration. During Park’s impeachment trial, the Constitutional Court heard accusations of abuse of power, infringements on freedom of speech, corruption, neglect of her duty to protect the lives of citizens, and a violation of the people’s sovereignty by allowing her civilian confidante to manipulate state affairs.

This included accusations that Park accepted bribes from conglomerates, blacklisted artistes and celebrities who were critical of her policies, and dismissed officials who opposed her.

She is also believed to have received billions of won in bribes from Mr Lee Jae-yong, the current chair of Samsung Electronics who served time for the bribery.

The Constitutional Court in 2017 upheld the impeachment in a unanimous 8-0 decision.

In the criminal investigation that followed her impeachment, Park, the eldest daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee, was found guilty of multiple charges including abuse of power, coercion and election law violations, and was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

It was South Korea’s current president, Mr Yoon Suk Yeol, who played a major part in the investigation that put her behind bars.

As a result of her incarceration, Park was stripped of all benefits that former presidents are entitled to, except for security protection.

Park’s successor Moon Jae-in pardoned her in December 2021, and she was released from prison later that month.

Lee Myung-bak, sentenced to 17 years in prison

Park’s predecessor Lee Myung-bak was indicted by prosecutors in 2018, five years after he completed his term as president, for suspected embezzlement, bribery and abuse of power.

The prosecution zeroed in on allegations of corruption dating back to Lee’s presidential campaign in 2007, during which his main rival for his party’s nomination was Park herself.

In a bitter irony, the race for the nomination saw the two conservative politicians hurl accusations of corruption, most of which turned out to be true in the investigations that took place a decade later.

Samsung was revealed to be one of Lee’s benefactors as well. It was found that Samsung Group – then under the leadership of the late Lee Kun-hee – had paid billions of won in litigation fees on behalf of DAS, an auto parts maker whose true ownership the Supreme Court in 2020 recognised as former president Lee.

Lee’s incarceration resulted in the loss of all the benefits provided to former presidents. But he, too, was pardoned by his successor, President Yoon.

Roh Moo-hyun, died by suicide amid investigation of his family

Roh Moo-hyun, who was in office from 2003 to 2008, was investigated by his successor Lee as part of a large-scale bribery probe targeting Roh’s family and confidantes.

Roh himself was cleared of bribery charges, involving 1.5 billion won (S$1.4 million) that he received from businessman Park Yeon-cha, when prosecutors found that it was a loan with an interest rate and a specific date for its repayment.

But the investigation found that Roh’s wife, as well as the husband of one of his nieces and his former presidential secretary, had also accepted money from Park, for which Roh was grilled by the prosecution.

Roh said he did not know of such payments, and was reportedly furious with his wife for taking the money.

The prosecution targeted Roh as a bribery suspect, and during the intense investigation, he jumped off a cliff near his home in South Gyeongsang Province in May 2009.

This resulted in the investigation being closed.

Chun Doo-hwan’s dictatorship ended by protests

In 1979, then-two-star army general Chun Doo-hwan pulled off a successful military coup against then-President Choi Kyu-hah. After taking control of the military, Chun conducted a bloody crackdown against pro-democracy protests across the country and eventually had himself elevated to the presidency in 1980.

South Korea at the time did not have direct elections in which each citizen casts a vote. Furthermore, the committee handling presidential elections was headed by none other than the incumbent president, which meant an iron-fisted leader could theoretically never lose power.

In 1987, people across the country engaged in demonstrations demanding direct elections. In January of that year, a college student and protestor by the name of Park Jong-chul was found to have been killed during brutal interrogation by the police, who tortured him to find out the locations of other student protestors.

While the authorities covered up the circumstances of Park’s death, pro-democracy activists, opposition lawmakers and the Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice eventually revealed the truth to the public, sparking a nationwide furore and what is now known as the June Struggle of 1987.

The Chun administration eventually gave in to the people’s demands, pledging a direct election system and the release of prominent opposition politician Kim Dae-jung, who later became president himself.

The next election, however, was won by Chun’s friend and fellow general Roh Tae-woo, who had also played a key role in the 1979 coup. Roh was able to win the election because the two other candidates, Kim Dae-jung and Kim Young-sam, were unable to settle their differences, resulting in a split vote.

After leaving office, both Chun and Roh were convicted of treason in 1996. Roh was eventually sentenced to 17 years in prison and Chun - initially sentenced to death - got life in prison.

Both of them were pardoned by their political rival Kim Dae-jung in 1998 and 1999, when the latter was president.

Strongman Park Chung-hee was assassinated

Park Chung-hee, the father of Park Geun-hye, maintained an iron-fisted rule over South Korea for nearly two decades since he rose to power in a military coup in 1961.

But his firm grip on the country was challenged when former spy chief Kim Hyung-uk published a tell-all memoir exposing negative sides of the Park administration.

Kim disappeared mysteriously in Paris in October 1979, but Park’s feud with his former right-hand man and then-spy chief Kim Jae-gyu blew up later that month when Kim assassinated Park during dinner.

The power vacuum left by Park’s assassination enabled Chun Doo-hwan to seize control in the coup of December 1979.

Syngman Rhee, overthrown for election rigging, died in exile

South Korea’s founding president Syngman Rhee is among the political figures most revered by the conservative bloc today.

He was elected president in 1948 and won the 1960 election handily after the only other candidate in the election died.

But the then-ruling Liberal Party was concerned over losing the vice-presidency to the opposition, and rigged the vote to ensure that its candidate Lee Ki-poong would win.

This led to nationwide protests in April 1960, pressuring Rhee to step down on April 26. He was forced into exile in Hawaii the next month, where he lived until his death in 1965.

But it was a short-lived victory for the people, as Rhee’s successor Yun Po-sun retained power for just a year until he was overthrown by Park Chung-hee’s military coup of 1961. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK