While there’s no strict protocol on when he must leave the official presidential residence by, it’s expected that he and his wife will return to their private home in the next week or so
President Yoon Suk-yeol attends a hearing in his impeachment trial on Feb. 13, 2025, at the Constitutional Court of Korea in Seoul’s Jongno District. (pool photo)
Former President Yoon Suk-yeol will be stripped of all presidential privileges save for a security detail after the Constitutional Court upheld his impeachment on Friday and ousted him from office. Yoon will also lose his presidential immunity from criminal prosecutions.
If Yoon had successfully managed to stay in office for his five-year term or left office voluntarily, he would have been eligible for a pension, provided office spaces and maintenance costs, free medical treatment for themselves and their family, keep three secretaries and one chauffeur and receive support for commemorative projects from civic organizations.
Former presidents receive up to 95 percent of their salary while in office as their pension, and as Yoon’s annual salary was 262.58 million won, in normal circumstances, he would have received around 260 million won per year, or close to US$178,000.
However, the law on the status and treatment of former presidents stipulates that those who are impeached from office, sentenced to imprisonment or more severe punishment, flee to a foreign country to evade criminal punishment, or lose their South Korean citizenship will be denied such privileges.
The symbolic significance of former presidents does allow impeached presidents to receive continued security protection. While presidents who make it to the end of their term can receive up to 15 years of protection, as they are guaranteed 10 years and can extend such services by five years, those who leave the office before the end of their term can only receive 10 years of protection, with a guaranteed five years and a further five-year extension. Former presidential couples typically have a security detail of around 25 bodyguards.
Yoon and his wife Kim Keon-hee will most probably move to their home in Acro Vista, an apartment complex in Seoul’s Seocho District after leaving the presidential residence in Seoul’s Hannam neighborhood. However, the lack of protocol on when the president must leave the residence leads many to believe they will remain in Hannam manor for the next few days.
Former President Park Geun-hye, who was removed from office on March 10, 2017, left the Blue House after two days due to maintenance and security issues. Since the Presidential Security Service has experience guarding Yoon’s Seocho residence in the six months following his inauguration, it seems that it will manage to relocate promptly.
By Lee Seung-jun, staff reporter
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