On Dec. 2, 2019, Yoon Suk-yeol, then the chief of the nation’s prosecution service, departs from the funeral of an investigator. (Yonhap)
1,375 days. That’s exactly how long it took for Yoon Suk-yeol, the nation’s top prosecutor, to go from throwing his hat into the ring for the presidency to become a former president facing trial on criminal insurrection charges following the Constitutional Court’s decision to uphold his impeachment and remove him from office.
The less than four years he spent in the nation’s spotlight was defiled by his haphazard management of state affairs, disavowal of communication and self-righteousness and the presidential couple’s privatization of power. As if that were not enough, by instigating a self-coup on Dec. 3, he shook to the very core South Korea’s democratic constitutional order, which was built from the blood and tears of the Korean people.
But Yoon’s removal from office is not the end of his legacy. Throughout his impeachment trial, he rallied his zealous supporters together under the battle cry of fighting “anti-state forces,” paving the way for the far right to infiltrate the system.
Various pillars of far-right worldviews, such as the belief that the martial law declaration was an act of enlightenment, hatred of so-called anti-state forces, suspicion of supposed Chinese spies and allegations of election fraud have permeated the public sphere, threatening our democracy even as we speak.
Fairness and common sense gone out the window
Yoon’s most powerful political asset was his image as the paragon of “fairness” and “rule of law,” which came into being during his feud with the Moon Jae-in administration as prosecutor general. After building his political prowess through an aggressive investigation into Cho Kuk, the nominee for justice minister, and bitter confrontations with then-Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae, Yoon threw in the towel as prosecutor general in March 2021 and announced his intention to run for president in the same year on June 29. In the speech in which he declared his presidential bid, Yoon said, “With common sense as my weapon, I swear to restore the values of liberal democracy, the rule of law and fairness, the principles which speak to all generations.”
After becoming the People Power Party’s presidential nominee and winning the election by the razor-thin margin of 0.73 percentage points, Yoon quickly began to disregard “fairness” and “common sense,” the very values he had touted throughout his presidential campaign when he stepped into the presidency on May 10, 2022.
The vow to uphold fairness and common sense was thrown to the sidelines in the face of the many allegations against his wife, Kim Keon-hee. Even when controversies surrounding her acceptance of a luxury handbag and involvement in the Deutsch Motors stock manipulation case surfaced, Kim nimbly evaded prosecution by receiving preferential treatment during the questioning by prosecutors.
Yoon also vetoed all three parliamentary bills mandating a special counsel probe into Kim’s various scandals. When asked to apologize for Kim’s apparent acceptance of graft, Yoon brushed off the issue by saying that when one is the president or the president’s wife, it’s “difficult to be rude to anyone.” Those within the political sphere began to believe that Yoon’s influence in governance was eclipsed by Kim, the woman pulling his strings.
Yoon didn’t budge despite the allegations raised against him. He flatly dismissed claims that he’d meddled in a Marine Corps probe into the death of a corporal surnamed Chae during a rescue mission in July 2023 because of his anger over the lead investigator’s findings.
In March 2024, Yoon appointed Lee Jong-sup, his former defense minister, as ambassador to Australia despite him being a central figure in the allegations swirling around the investigation into the death of the Marine. That appointment epitomized Yoon’s total disregard for fairness, common sense and the rule of law. He repeatedly vetoed a special probe into the Marine’s death, concerned about his own exposure in the scandal.
Yoon responded similarly to allegations about influence-peddling raised by political fixer Myung Tae-kyun. In a press conference on Nov. 7, 2024, Yoon said, “I haven’t done anything inappropriate in connection with Myung Tae-kyun, nor do I have anything to hide.” But his disavowals were largely disproven by recently disclosed records of messages exchanged between Yoon, his wife, and Myung on KakaoTalk and Telegram.
Hard-headed and self-righteous
The National Assembly was controlled by the opposition Democratic Party throughout Yoon’s presidency. Needless to say, communication with the National Assembly and cooperation with the opposition were essential for making progress on Yoon’s agenda.
But his first course of action as president was to fill the leadership of the People Power Party (PPP) with his own people. Toward that end, he inserted himself into party business and engineered the ouster of then-party head Lee Jun-seok, filling the spot with Kim Gi-hyeon, a loyal ally. Later, Yoon clashed repeatedly with Han Dong-hoon, a former prosecutor under Yoon who became first interim leader and then official leader of the PPP after its crushing defeat in the general election.
With his hard-headed and self-righteous attitude, Yoon was constantly at loggerheads with the Democratic Party. Beginning with the Grain Management Act in April 2023, Yoon vetoed a total of 25 bills passed by the opposition-controlled National Assembly before he declared martial law.
Yoon blatantly attacked groups that criticized him as “anti-state forces” and “communist totalitarian forces.” He didn’t exhibit the slightest remorse for the PPP’s thrashing in the general election on April 10, 2024, even though he was largely to blame. He met with the opposition party leader just once after the election, and never again.
Yoon remained tight-lipped despite increasing public doubt and anger over a vulgarity caught on a hot mic in September 2022 and the deadly crowd crush in Itaewon in October 2022.
Yoon devoted diplomatic resources to boosting trilateral cooperation with the US and Japan and improving bilateral relations with Japan. But his legacy there is undercut by criticism over an obsequious foreign policy symbolized by Japan’s refusal to even acknowledge Koreans’ forced labor in a memorial service at the Sado mine complex.
In February 2024, Yoon announced that Korea would raise its cap on medical school admissions by 2,000 people a year. This well-intentioned push to improve medical services by training more doctors created pandemonium in the country’s hospitals, triggering a conflict between the government and the medical community that remains unresolved more than a year later.
Falsehood peddling and rabble rousing
About a week after his illegal declaration of martial law on Dec. 3, Yoon delivered an address to the public on Dec. 12 in which he sought to justify martial law by attacking his political opponents. He brought up the opposition’s impeachment of Cabinet members and slashing of his budget bill and slammed his political enemies as “monsters destroying our liberal constitutional order” and “forces trashing the Constitution.”
In reality, the Constitution states that martial law can only be declared in a national emergency, such as a war or other armed conflict. So it was Yoon who was trashing the Constitution through his illegal and unconstitutional declaration of martial law, his attempt to take over the National Assembly and the National Election Commission, and his orders to arrest politicians. Nevertheless, he remained trapped in his falsehoods and fabrications, and the National Assembly passed a bill of impeachment against him on Dec. 14, suspending his presidential authority.
On the last day of the year, a Korean court issued an arrest warrant against Yoon, as the alleged ringleader of an insurrection. Finally, it seemed his wild ride was being halted.
But Yoon had already bought into far-right narratives and conspiracy theories on YouTube, and he dashed the hopes of Koreans who had been working so hard to restore democracy and the constitutional order.
There had been indications of Yoon’s far-right sympathies ever since his inauguration. Disturbingly enough, a large contingent of far-right YouTubers in the camp of the pastor Jun Kwang-hoon (who went on to champion Yoon after his botched martial law declaration) and leading figures in right-wing street protests were invited to Yoon’s inauguration. After that, YouTubers and other figures on the far right and the political fringe began to assume official positions at public organizations and the presidential office. It was widely rumored in Yongsan and Yeouido that Yoon was an avid viewer of far-right YouTube channels and that he often shared videos espousing conspiracy theories about election-rigging.
President Yoon Suk-yeol leaves the stage after giving an address at an event celebrating the police held at the National Police Agency complex in Seoul’s Seodaemun District on Oct. 21, 2024. (Kim Tae-hyeong/Hankyoreh)
Once Yoon was backed into the corner, his far-right sympathies became evident. He dubbed the supporters who gathered in front of his presidential residence on Jan. 1 “guardians of liberal democracy” and asked them to prevent his arrest, promising to “fight until the end.”
“The Republic of Korea is in danger because of the machinations of anti-state forces and groups determined to steal our sovereignty both inside and outside the country,” Yoon said, egging on his radical supporters with hatred for his critics and political opponents.
Until he was arrested and detained by the police and the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials on Jan. 15, he worked with loyalists in the Presidential Security Service to fortify his residence in the Hannam neighborhood of Seoul. Even after Yoon was charged by the public prosecutors, his prevarications and attempts to sway the public continued at the Constitutional Court.
Yoon didn’t express any remorse in his concluding statement in his impeachment trial on Feb. 25. He argued his insurrectionist behavior was “an appeal to the public that took the form of martial law.” Yoon was still hopeful about returning to his duties: “I won’t insist on completing my term. Rather, I’ll do my best to improve the 1987 Constitution and treat constitutional and political reform as my last duty on the job.”
Tallying up the cost of Yoon’s behavior
Yoon’s trial on insurrection charges and the investigation into the various allegations surrounding Myung Tae-kyun will give us a chance to continue assessing Yoon’s presidential legacy both for good and for ill. His martial law declaration on Dec. 3 caused immense damage and left severe fissures in Korean politics and foreign policy, as well as its economy and society.
Korea’s economic downturn is continuing, and Main Street has lost momentum. US President Donald Trump’s imposition of a 25% reciprocal tariff is an alarming development for the Korean economy as a whole, but Korea’s caretaker president is helpless to act.
On Dec. 6, a Forbes writer described Yoon Suk-yeol’s martial law declaration as a “GDP killer” and predicted that “the high price for Yoon’s selfish martial law debacle will be paid over time, in installments, by South Korea’s 51 million people” — a prediction that is starting to come true.
Most seriously, Yoon’s actions have empowered far-right forces who used to be easily disregarded protesters, giving them an influential political platform and a megaphone to broadcast their opinions. Returning Korean democracy to normal will entail enormous effort, and huge expense.
“Let’s go back to before things were shattered.” The line from Park Chan-wook’s film “Decision to Leave” struck a chord with many who watched an April 1 video petition by filmmakers urging the Constitutional Court to remove Yoon from office.
It’s critical that each and every Korean work with passion and dedication to clear the insurrectionist mines Yoon laid throughout our society and to rebuild our collapsed constitutional order.
By Lee Seung-jun, staff reporter
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
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