From Jack Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol faces the biggest challenge of his short but colorful political career, despite surviving a tough impeachment challenge, as members of his own party called for him to resign amid a state of emergency.
Yoon was considered a tough political survivor, but he became increasingly isolated, dogged by personal scandals and conflicts, unrelenting opposition and splits within his own party.
After narrowly winning the 2022 election, his recent battles have left him increasingly embittered and brought out the recklessness that a former rival said was his defining trait.
By the time Yoon tried to impose martial law on Tuesday, he was badly damaged politically.
A bid to impeach him failed late Saturday when members of his ruling party boycotted a session of the National Assembly, but even some of them said he was unqualified for office and should resign.
The opposition vowed to try again, while Yoon’s party said it would find a “more orderly, more responsible” way to deal with the crisis.
Some analysts say Yoon, a former prosecutor who never held elected office before the presidential election, showed signs of “extreme anger” when the state of emergency was in effect, citing language he allegedly used to order the arrests of some members of parliament who clashed with him.
A senior spy agency official told the parliament’s intelligence committee that Yoon said, “Grab them all and round them up,” according to committee member Kim Byung-kee.
SCANDALS OVERSHADOW SUCCESS ABROAD
Ihn Yohan, a doctor and member of parliament for Yoon’s People Power Party, which is considered an ally of the president, said the state of emergency decree was “extreme” but not completely unjustified given the endless political attacks on Yoon. “I hope we remember how incredibly and viciously the opposition party cornered the president and his family with threats of special prosecutors and impeachment,” he said at a party meeting on Thursday.
The past year of Yoon’s presidency has been largely overshadowed by a scandal involving his wife, who was accused of improperly accepting an expensive Christian Dior (EPA:) purse as a gift and his stubborn refusal to go along with it completely.
Only after the scandal was blamed as the main reason for his party’s crushing defeat in parliamentary elections in April did he apologize. But he continued to reject calls for an investigation into the scandal and allegations of stock price manipulation involving his wife and her mother.
The prosecutor’s office that investigated the allegations decided not to press charges against the first lady.
Yoon’s struggles at home have overshadowed the relative success he has achieved on the international stage.
His bold push to reverse a decades-long diplomatic dispute with neighboring Japan and join Tokyo in trilateral security cooperation with the United States is widely regarded as his signature foreign policy legacy.
Yoon’s ability to connect on a personal level, considered a trait that brought him early success, was on full display at a White House event last year, when Yoon took the stage to sing the pop song “American Pie” for a stunned President Joe Biden. and an enthusiastic crowd.
SHAMANS, FRIENDS FROM HIGH SCHOOL
Born into a wealthy family in Seoul, Yoon was an easy-going young man who excelled in school. He enrolled at the elite Seoul National University to study law, but his penchant for partying led him to repeatedly fail the bar exam before passing on the ninth try.
Yoon, who turns 64 on Dec. 18, shot to national fame in 2016 when, as the chief investigator investigating the corruption of then-President Park Geun-hye, he told a reporter that the prosecutors were not gangsters when asked if he was seeking revenge.
Three years earlier, Park had suspended and then fired Yoon from a team investigating a high-profile case against a spy agency. That move was seen by many as a punishment for challenging her authority.
The role he played in imprisoning the current president and his dramatic return as head of the powerful Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office marked the beginning of a meteoric rise to power.
Two years later, he became the chief prosecutor and led a corruption investigation against a close ally of the next president, Moon Jae-in. This has made him a darling of conservatives frustrated by Moon’s liberal policies, which has set him up as a 2022 presidential candidate.
Yoon defeated Lee Jae-myung, the current opposition leader who led the impeachment process against him, by a margin of less than 1%.
But Yoon’s presidency got off to a rocky start when he began moving the presidential office from the Blue House complex to a new location, facing questions about whether the old presidential estate was cursed due to feng shui beliefs. At the time, Yoon denied any connection between himself and his wife to the shaman.
When Yoon refused to fire top officials after the disaster on Halloween night 2022, in which 159 people died in a stampede in Seoul’s nightlife district of Itaewon, he was accused of protecting “yes men.” One of them was Security Minister Lee Sang-min, a close confidant and fellow high school graduate of Yoon’s.
Another student at Choongam High School in Seoul was Kim Yong-hyun, the man who spearheaded the relocation of the presidential office, then became the president’s security service, and was named defense minister in September.
Kim was one of two people who recommended Yoon declare martial law, a senior military official said. Lee was second, according to local media reports.
