From jailing South Korea’s presidents for corruption to martial law scandal – who is Yoon Suk Yeol?
It was in May 2022 that Yoon Suk Yeol vowed that as president of South Korea he will to ‘build a great nation that espouses liberal democracy’ at his inauguration speech.
Instead his term has been marked by scandals – and now a failed martial law order that has plunged the East Asian nation in a state of turmoil.
In the last 24 hours – some of the most critical within recent South Korean politics – one question has emerged: where did it all go so wrong for the former prosecutor?
Follow Metro’s live blog on the crisis in South Korea
As calls for the president’s resignation continue to mount and lawmakers make moves to impeach him, Metro looks and his rise and what seems like inevitable fall from power.
Who is Yoon Suk Yeol?
In his former life, Yoon worked briefly as a lawyer and later as a prosecutor before becoming South Korea’s 13th president.
It is strange to think that as chief of the Central District Prosecutor’s Office in Seoul, he played a key role in convicting former presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak of abuse of power.
And now he is having to face the music himself, two weeks away from his 64th birthday.
A Conservative, Yoon won the 2022 election by a slim margin, promising a more confrontational stance against North Korea.
At his inauguration speech, he said: ‘While North Korea’s nuclear weapon programs are a threat not only to our security and that of Northeast Asia, the door to dialogue will remain open so that we can peacefully resolve this threat.
‘North Korea’s denuclearisation will greatly contribute to bringing lasting peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and beyond.’
Since then, Yoon’s political career has been plagued by scandals – and it appears that the martial law order may be the nail in his coffin.
Early, he faced backlash over corruption scandals involving him and his wife, and as a result, has struggled to get his agenda through.
The president’s unpopularity was yet again underscored by parliamentary elections this April, which delivered another majority for the opposition Democratic party.
Who is his wife?
It almost seems like the crisis in South Korea started with a Christian Dior handbag and ended in a declaration of martial law.
It all started a few months after Yoon’s inauguration, in September 2022, when first lady, Kim Keon-hee, became embroiled in a controversy about the $2,250 luxury, allegedly given to her by a Korean-American pastor.
Spy camera released by pastor Choi Jae-young allegedly showed Yoon’s wife accepting the gift.
The revelation ignited a political scandal, with allegations that Kim had violated South Korea’s laws, which restrict public officials and their spouses from receiving gifts exceeding a certain value.
At a conference, the president apologised for what he called ‘my wife’s unwise behavior’ in accepting the Dior bag but refused to elaborate any further because the scandal is under investigation.
Why did he declare martial law?
Yoon blamed the main opposition party for an ‘anti-state’ plot and for North Korean sympathies as he ordered martial law late on Tuesday without any warning.
The president gave no direct evidence when he raised the specter of North Korea as a destabilizing force – and Kim Kong-un’s regime has remained quiet on the allegation so far.
Yoon has long maintained that a hard line against the North is the only way to stop Kim from following through on his nuclear threats against the South.
In the late 1980s, South Korea had a series of strongmen who repeatedly invoked North Korea when struggling to control domestic dissidents and political opponents.
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