Rise and fall of Yoon Suk Yeol, the prosecutor president

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Rise and fall of Yoon Suk Yeol, the prosecutor president

Published: 14 Dec. 2024, 17:01 Updated: 15 Dec. 2024, 13:27

SARAH CHEA
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

President Yoon Suk Yeol greets citizens in Jinju, South Gyeongsang, on April 21, 2022. [YONHAP]

Yoon Suk Yeol, who became the president of South Korea on the back of the fame he gained from playing a key role in impeaching former President Park Geun-hye, has ended up facing a similar fate.

With the National Assembly's passage of Yoon's impeachment motion on Saturday, his presidency is now at risk of ending halfway through his term, facing the prospect of going down in history as only the country's second democratically elected president to be forced from office.

Once a strong-willed prosecutor who wasn't hesitant to mete out punishment in the corridors of authority, the 63-year-old has driven the public — and even some lawmakers in his own party — to turn their backs against him.

But who can he blame? The latest political turmoil began with his botched declaration of emergency martial law on the night of Dec. 3, the first such proclamation in 45 years that threw Korea into serious social chaos.

So who is Yoon, how did he become president and why did it end up like this?

A young Yoon Suk Yeol poses with his father. [JOONGANG ILBO]

From a family of scholars, fond of drinks and friends

Born in 1960 in Yeonhui-dong in western Seoul, President Yoon was the eldest son of a scholarly family. His father, the late Yoon Ki-jung, was a renowned economist, while his mother, Choi Seong-ja, was a chemical professor at Ewha University.

Yoon enrolled in Seoul National University’s School of Law in 1979, in accordance with his father’s wish to stretch learning to practical studies. That time period was during the middle of absolute confusion in Korea, including major political issues like the death of former President Park Chung-hee and a military coup led by the late President Chun Doo Hwan.

Yoon was exempted from the national military service due to anisometropia, an affliction of the eyes.

He fell short in the second round of the bar exam eight times, possibly due to his characteristics of enjoying socializing with friends, attending drinking parties and having a bit of a nosy personality, a description shared by a member of his own People Power Party (PPP), Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun, in a video uploaded to actor Kim Seung-woo's YouTube channel last December.

Yoon passed the bar in 1991 on his ninth attempt. His colleagues in the 23rd class of the Judicial Research and Training Institute included former Justice Minister Park Beom-gye, former Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Cho Yoon-sun and lawyer Kang Yong-seok.

President Yoon Suk Yeol when he was attending law school at Seoul National University. [JOONGANG ILBO]

An 'unusually' single-minded prosecutor

Graphic of Yoon Suk Yeol's profile and career that rose him to presidency. [KOREA JOONGANG DAILY]

Yoon started his career as a prosecutor when he was 34 years old, and he was described as an “unusual guy" due to his unique tendency to confront the halls of power and authority.

In 1999, Yoon was the prime mover behind the arrest of Park Hee-won, the director of the National Police Agency's intelligence bureau at the time who was also a heavyweight in the former Kim Dae-jung government, on charges of bribery. As a native of Honam — referring to the Gwangju and Jeolla provinces — Park was a key figure in charge of all police intelligence. After arresting Park, who was at the center of power, Yoon was described as an “unusual guy" who is "single-minded and can never be promoted" by fellow prosecutors.

In 2002, Yoon left the prosecution and worked as an attorney at the law firm Bae, Kim and Lee for a year. But private practice appeared to clash with his aptitude, and he made a return to the prosecution, engaging in big cases targeting those in power.

Yoon was in charge of investigating the late President Roh Moo-hyun's illegal campaign fund allegations, arresting and indicting many of his allies including Ahn Hee-jung, former governor of South Chungcheong, and the late Kang Keum-won, chairman of Changsin Textile. Roh Jeong-yeon, the daughter of the late president, was also indicted without detention by Yoon on charges of violating the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act.

In 2006, Yoon arrested and indicted Chung Mong-koo, honorary chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, on slush fund allegations and in 2011, the late Lee Sang-deuk, the older brother of former President Lee Myung-bak, was arrested and indicted for allegedly violating the Political Funds Act.

He married at the age of 52 to Kim Keon Hee, 12 years his junior.

President Yoon Suk Yeol when he was 34 years old, starting his career as a prosecutor. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Events that changed his fate

An event that changed Yoon’s life, probably the driver behind his presidential ambitions, occurred in 2013. Yoon spearheaded the investigation into public opinion manipulation by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in the first year of the Park Geun-hye administration. Yoon drew the sword against NIS head Won Se-hoon, and pitted himself against Hwang Kyo-ahn, the justice minister at the time.

Then, he was removed from all his duties and was suspended from work for a month. When he could come back to the prosecution, he was demoted to a regular prosecutor without any titles in Daegu and Daejeon.

But he was given another chance in less than three years, with an investigation launched into the Choi Soon-sil scandal during Park's government. Yoon joined the investigation team as the lead prosecutor.

Yoon also initiated an investigation into Samsung Group related to Choi's scandal and arrested and indicted Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong on bribery charges. Yoon’s team sent former President Park, Choi and Lee to prison, and was highly praised by the public. At the time, Yoon earned the nickname of "the country’s favorite prosecutor."

On the back of his fame and popularity, Yoon got a big promotion to the chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, a key organization in the prosecution, by former President Moon Jae-in, who took office in 2017. Yoon dug into the NIS public opinion manipulation case and arrested and charged former defense minister Kim Kwan-jin and former President Lee.

But his relationship with the president started to deteriorate after he targeted Cho Kuk, Moon's justice minister and close ally, and his family including his daughter Cho Min for academic fraud. Cho was a direct superior of Yoon at the time.

On the day of Cho's confirmation hearing on Sept. 6, 2019, Yoon indicted Cho's wife, Chung Kyung-sim, for involvement in their daughter's academic fraud.

With Cho's resignation, Yoon had an even deeper confrontation with the next justice minister, Choo Mi-ae. He was in the doghouse with the DP, and eventually had to step down from his role at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office without fulfilling his term.

Yoon, whose name then was a byword for a just prosecutor, remarked at the time, "The real prosecution reform that the public wants is a fair investigation into the corruption of the real authority."

With no experience in the political scene, the novice politician catapulted directly to the presidential candidacy of the PPP.

President Yoon Suk Yeol, right, with first lady Kim Keon Hee wearing hanbok, or traditional Korean clothing, on Sept. 28, 2023. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

A presidency with challenges and controversies

Yoon was elected as Korea's first prosecutor to become president in May 2022, defeating his liberal rival and perpetual adversary Lee Jae-myung by just 0.73 percentage points — the narrowest margin in any Korean presidential race.

Yoon's journey in the top office has been far from easy. He was left with an opposition-controlled parliament, leading to a struggle to pass legislation proposed by his government. It is reported that as of January 2024, only 29 percent of the bills proposed by his administration that have been submitted to parliament have been passed.

Yoon fought back by exercising his veto power to strike down Democratic Party (DP)-sponsored legislation. During the roughly two years and seven months of his presidency, Yoon vetoed a total of 25 bills, more than any of his predecessors since 1987 after the military dictatorship.

He also caused public uproar when he revealed his plan to relocate the presidential office from the Blue House in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, to the Defense Ministry complex in Yongsan, central Seoul. It was a surprising announcement, criticized for the overall cost of the "unnecessary" relocation.

President Yoon Suk Yeol, right, shakes hands with former President Park Geun-hye, in Daegu on April 12, 2022. [YONHAP]

The public upheaval caused by his leadership has persisted, with his prolonged fight with doctors running for 10 months now, causing thousands of doctors to go on strike over his plan to increase the medical school admissions quota by 2,000 spots from the current limit of 3,058, which has been frozen since its last reduction in 2006.

While former presidents favored dialogue with North Korea, Yoon maintained a strong stance against Pyongyang. Under Yoon's presidency, Korea has faced a renewed barrage of threats from the North, including more frequent missile tests and an incursion of trash-laden balloons.

His agenda suffered a huge setback as his party endured a crushing electoral defeat in the general elections in April, with the rival DP clinching a resounding victory, enabling it to wield an even stronger majority in the National Assembly.

Occupying 192 seats in the 300-member legislature, opposition lawmakers have since been pushing for investigations into Yoon and his wife, including enabling a special counsel probe into alleged stock manipulation involving the first lady.

A series of proposed annual budgets have faced rejection by the opposition-dominated parliament, and the DP has launched constant attempts to impeach Yoon's allies in his administration.

President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during an address at the Yongsan presidential office in central Seoul on Thursday. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

Amid the ongoing tension with an incompatible companion in an adversarial parliament, Yoon's response was a proclamation of emergency martial law on the night of Dec. 3, calling his enemies "antistate forces."

"I declare martial law to protect the Republic of Korea from the threats of North Korean communist forces, to immediately eradicate the unscrupulous pro-Pyongyang antistate forces that pillage the freedom and happiness of our people and to protect free constitutional order," he said.

Martial law was lifted after six hours as lawmakers from both sides of the aisle voted it down in the National Assembly, but the aftermath has been deepening the political and social unrest in Korea, even impacting the industrial and economic sectors.

BY SARAH CHEA [[email protected]]