Category: Politics-Korea

I don’t think Yoon’s release is really going to impact the upcoming impeachment decision from the Constitutional Court. I think what will influence their decisionmaking is public sentiment. If public sentiment is overwhelmingly in favor of President Yoon I think it will be less likely he is convicted for impeachment:

As President Yoon Suk Yeol was released from detention on Saturday following a court decision, all attention is now channeled into how the release will affect the impeachment trial on his Dec. 3 martial law declaration, as any influence could add further complications.

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) and Yoon’s legal defense team hailed the decision as “confirmation” that there were serious violations of procedural rules throughout the investigation process, with some calling on the Constitutional Court to “correct” its own such violations before issuing a verdict on whether to formally oust the president from office.

On the other hand, the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) played down its significance, claiming that the ruling will have “no impact” on the impeachment trial and that any procedural flaws will not reverse the fact that his martial law imposition was unconstitutional.

On Friday, the Seoul Central District Court said it approved Yoon’s request for release after determining that the prosecution’s Jan. 26 indictment of him on insurrection charges, which allowed his arrest to be extended, had come hours after the 10-day initial detention period had already expired. It did not accept the prosecution’s usual way of calculating the duration of detention.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here was a Sunday surprise for impeached President Yoon:

Impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol was released from jail Saturday, a day after a court’s ruling that allowed him to stand trial without physical detention over his failed bid to impose martial law in December.

Waving to his supporters, Yoon walked out of the Seoul Detention Center, 52 days after he was detained on charges of inciting an insurrection. However, impeachment and criminal trials against Yoon will continue. 

Yoon’s release came shortly after Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung decided not to appeal the court’s ruling to release the suspended president. 

Bowing deeply to his supporters, Yoon arrived at his official residence in central Seoul on Saturday evening.

(Yonhap)

You can read more at the link.

It looks like ROK conservatives are preparing for President Yoon’s impeachment to be confirmed and are now communicating their platform for the upcoming snap election:

Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo, left, and Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo pay tribute to the 2.28 Democracy Movement Monument in Daegu, Friday. Yonhap

“The current Constitution, adopted in 1987, must change. People should not experience [DPK] Rep. Lee’s 29 impeachment motions or the president’s martial law imposition ever again,” Han told reporters Sunday. “Accomplishing this requires a willingness to make sacrifices on the part of those entrusted with important tasks.”

In an interview, Han said that if elected president, he would advocate for a constitutional amendment to introduce a four-year term with the possibility of reelection and would step down in 2028 to ensure that the next presidential and general elections coincide. He also said establishing a congress with two separate legislative chambers, similar to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, is essential.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon also echoed the idea, suggesting that whoever is the next president should resign after three years in office so as to align the two elections (presidential and general). Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo expressed his support for the four-year term with reelection and a bicameral legislature but disagreed with the proposal to shorten the next presidential term to three years.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

The divide between the pro and anti-Yoon sides in South Korea is continuing to deepen:

About two dozen students, alumni and others gathered at Ewha Womans University in Seoul last week, denouncing the National Assembly’s impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol as “invalid,” only to encounter another group of students holding an in-school rally calling for Yoon’s ouster at the same time.

The encounter quickly escalated into violence as dozens of pro-Yoon YouTubers and activists broke into the campus to join forces, along with an opposing group of anti-Yoon student activists, despite the female-only university’s ban on outsiders entering the campus for any rally.

Insults were hurled between the opposing groups, while some tugged at others before the scene was brought to an end only after university officials and police personnel were mobilized.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Very large rallies for and against President Yoon’s impeachment took place in Seoul this weekend:

Rallies led by conservative activist pastor Jeon Kwang-hoon and the conservative Christian group Save Korea began near the Gwanghwamun area in downtown Seoul and Yeouido in western Seoul at 1 p.m. to oppose Yoon’s impeachment.

Police estimated up to 120,000 people had gathered for the two rallies.

Dozens of lawmakers from the ruling People Power Party (PPP) attended the rally in Yeouido, including Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun, who delivered a message on behalf of the impeached president on the rally stage.

“When the will and the sense of responsibility to defend freedom are lost, communist totalitarianism and populism will take its place,” the lawmaker quoted Yoon as saying. “We must fight until the end with that will and sense of responsibility.”

Yonhap

What is interesting is how the conservative rallies completely dwarfed what the left wing parties were able to muster in support of Yoon’s impeachment:

DP leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung was among the 18,000 people gathered for the rally near Anguk Station, where the Constitutional Court is located, according to an unofficial police estimate. The DP said some 130 lawmakers took part.

Lee denounced the PPP, claiming that those who deny constitutional order and the rule of law cannot be conservatives. (….)

At 5 p.m., another group of protesters calling for Yoon’s ouster held a rally in downtown Seoul, with about 15,000 people gathering, according to police estimate.

Participants held picket signs supporting Yoon’s impeachment and chanted, “Hurray for democracy,” and “Hurray for ending insurrection.”

So between the two left wing rallies they were able to muster 33,000 people compared to the conservative rally that had 120,000 people. For those that have followed rallies before in South Korea the turn out for the left is pretty pathetic by their standards. For example for the anti-US beef riots in 2008 drew far more than this in one rally much less two.

I think what this shows is that there is not broad support for President Yoon’s impeachment and that within the Korean left there is also not as much support for Lee Jae-myung as some believed.

They aren’t just coming after conservative populists in America. They’re coming after us across the world.

WATCH as Ambassador Morse Tan describes the political persecution against South Korean President Yoon:

“In South Korea, you have a coup in process…the person who wants… pic.twitter.com/cuofUABX4m

— CPAC (@CPAC) February 26, 2025

Imagine if American politicians could be jailed for lying to the public? The U.S. wouldn’t have a government:

Prosecutors on Wednesday demanded a two-year prison term for opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on charges of lying as a presidential candidate during the 2022 election.

Lee of the Democratic Party (DP) is considered the presidential frontrunner in the event President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment is upheld, but confirmation of his lower court sentence of one year in prison, suspended for two years, would bar him from running in the next presidential election in 2027.

The opposition leader is accused of lying during a media interview in December 2021 that he did not know the late Kim Moon-ki, a former executive of Seongnam Development Corp., which was behind a corruption-ridden development project in Seongnam, south of Seoul, when Lee was the city’s mayor.

During the final hearing of his appellate trial in the day, the prosecution said Lee deserves “a heavy punishment for distorting voters’ choices by telling a lie.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.