South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol was indicted on charges of insurrection on Sunday, the first sitting South Korean president face a criminal indictment.
Insurrection, one of the few crimes that executive immunity does not protect South Korean presidents from being charged with, is punishable by life in prison or the death penalty. The charges stem from Yoon attempting, and rapidly failing, to impose military rule on the country on December 3. Yoon prompted an ongoing political firestorm in the country by abruptly declaring martial law in early December, claiming it necessary because the opposition-led National Assembly was blocking his legislative agenda.
The indictment, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, accuses Yoon of trying to use the military to block members of the National Assembly from voting against the martial law decree and planning to arrest political rivals, among other alleged actions.
Yoon, a hardline anti-communist, claimed that North Korea was attempting to infiltrate and neutralize Seoul, creating a national security emergency that required the imposition of military rule.
The martial law status lasted only about six hours as National Assembly lawmakers stormed the legislative floor to vote against the decree. Martial law in the country makes all political activity illegal and the military surrounded the National Assembly to block lawmakers from convening to vote against the decree, but the assemblymen scaled fences and elbowed through columns of heavily-armed soldiers to make it to the floor and vote. Yoon relented and announced an end to the martial law decree shortly thereafter.
South Koreans almost universally opposed the martial law declaration and the leadership of Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) supported him vacating power in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. The leftist opposition Democratic Party began the impeachment process – which is ongoing today – but appeared to irritate the public by also impeaching acting President Han Duck-soo in late December on spurious grounds and seek Yoon’s arrest in addition to his ouster.
Yoon himself apologized to the South Korean people shortly after the failed martial law decree but appeared more defiant as the conversation shifted away from impeachment and towards arrest.
Yoon is currently in police custody. He was arrested on January 15 on charges of abuse of power pertaining to his declaration of martial law. The arrest took hours as the criminal case was in the hands of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO), which Yoon and his supporters argued did not have authority to work the case. Yoon’s presidential security service (PSS) preventing the first attempt to arrest Yoon, but the impeached president ultimately relented and went into custody.
After being arrested, Yoon released a pre-recorded video message in which he explained that he feared resisting arrest would lead to “unpleasant bloodshed,” but he considered the CIO’s case against him unconstitutional.
“Seeing warrants being issued by agencies without investigative authority, and courts without the authority to review warrants issuing arrest warrants and search and seizure warrants,” Yoon said in the video, “and seeing investigative agencies issuing false official documents to deceive the people, committing such illegal acts, and forcibly proceeding with procedures based on invalid warrants, I cannot help but feel regretful.”
The indictment on Sunday follows the CIO transferring the Yoon case to the state prosecution service, which appeared to drop charges of abuse of power which would have been blocked by executive immunity. The Korea JoongAng Daily newspaper reported that the arrest warrant that allowed for Yoon’s detention on January 15 would have expired on Monday, pressuring prosecutors to move to indict him or free him.
The convoluted relationship between law enforcement agencies also means that the state prosecution office will not be able to question Yoon for their case – “prosecutors were forced to choose between releasing Yoon or indicting him without being able to question him themselves,” JoongAng explained.
All evidence in the case, then will come from the CIO’s activities.
Insurrection can result in either life imprisonment or capital punishment, though the latter is extremely rare in South Korea and no executions have occurred in the country for decades, according to Yonhap. The lack of new evidence and Yoon’s resistance to questioning will likely also make the case difficult for the prosecution.
While the country was largely united against the martial law decree when Yoon initially imposed it – and still appears to have no appetite for military rule – the attempts to compile a criminal case against Yoon have galvanized some conservatives. Thousands have protested against his arrest, many of them equating Yoon’s case to the many legal woes of American President Donald Trump during his third presidential campaign in 2024. Protesters have often sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” and recently began adopting the Village People classic “YMCA,” a favorite of Trump’s, as the soundtrack of their protests.
South Korean police reported dozens of arrests of protesters on January 15 opposing Yoon’s detention.
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