It is a descending parabola that of Yoon Suk Yeol, from a former prosecutor famous in South Korea to President removed definitively by his assignment today, after a historical sentence of the Constitutional Court which unanimously accepted the demand for impeachment.
Before entering politics in the late age, Yoon Suk Yeol, born in Seoul on 18 December 1960 to university parents, spent the entire career at the public prosecutor’s office. He played a key role in the investigation into the abuse of power and on the corruption that led to the resignation of the former president Park Geun-hye, in 2017, and to his subsequent incarceration.
In the same year he was appointed Prosecutor of Seoul and under his guide, the accusation inclined a hundred personalities for all kinds of embezzlement, including an ex -president, a former minister and several former heads of the secret services as well as several suspects who commit suicide in prison. Yoon then became the general prosecutor in 2019 and, two years later, riding the wave of his popularity, he resigned to announce his presidential candidacy, joining the Peoplès Power Party (PPP, Right).
However, Yoon quickly fell into the scheme after its ascent to the presidency, between family scandals and electoral flask. The 64 -year -old conservative, beginners in politics, climbed power in 2022 by winning the most close presidential elections in the history of the country, therefore with a rather weak mandate. Declared anti -feminist, from the highly anti -Korean political line of the North, Yoon was the architect of the rapprochement with the former Japanese colonizer, despite a strong national resentment. He has never obtained the majority in the assembly, therefore all his projects and government programs were wrecked, including the abolition of the Ministry for gender equality, which was at the forefront of the progress of South Korean women since 2001. During his mandate, he managed to strengthen the alliance with the United States, in the face of the threats from Pyongyang.
His reputation as president was quickly ruined by a series of scandals. Starting from the Halloween crowd in Seoul in October 2022, which caused more than 150 deaths. The tragedy is attributed to a series of negligence by the authorities.
He was then accused of abusing his power of veto, in particular to block a parliamentary investigation on a case of manipulation of the stock market that involved his wife Kim Keon-Hee.
The reputation of the South Korean First Lady suffered another blow in 2023, when it was filmed without knowing it while accepting a 2,200 dollar bag as a gift. A politician then provoked the fury of the president by comparing Kim Keon-Hee to Maria Antonietta, wife of King Louis XVI of France, known for his sumptuous lifestyle. The nickname is used by North Korean propaganda in the flyers sent to hot air balloon in the South.
Yoon, who has no children and loves dogs very much, has thus seen his popular support weaken very quickly. The strong decline of popularity of the president paid high at the legislative elections of April 2024: the Peoplès Power Party managed to win only 108 seats out of 300 in the national assembly.
Put on the corner and in difficulty in the polls, on 3 December last he declared the martial law, surprisinglydenouncing a “parliamentary dictatorship” of the opposition, making South Korea go back to political scenarios that have not occurred since the 80s. The conservative leader has always justified his actions, claiming to want to protect South Korea from the “North Korean communist forces” and “eliminate hostile elements to the state”.
After today’s historic sentence, Yoon became the second president in the history of South Korea to be accused. Before him only Park Geun-Hye, the president of which Yoon caused the fall when he was prosecutor.