South Korea’s ousted leader Yoon Suk Yeol, a brash ex-prosecutor who came to power by repeatedly defying setbacks and taking gambles, ultimately fell victim to political recklessness that led him to impose martial law, former colleagues say.
Dogged by personal scandals involving his wife, a bitter row with political opponents whom he called communist sympathisers, and party-room rifts, Yoon was removed from the presidency on Friday in the third year of his five-year term.
The Constitutional Court upheld Yoon’s impeachment by parliament, ruling unanimously that he violated his constitutional duty by briefly declaring martial law on December 3 with no justifiable grounds.
Yoon, 64, still faces a criminal trial on charges of masterminding insurrection when he mobilised troops to try to shut down an opposition-led parliament that he accused of trying to destroy the country.
He denies wrongdoing, arguing in court that his six-hour attempt at martial law was to protect the country from “anti-state forces.”
Yoon used his legal career as a launchpad for elected office, according to a former colleague, winning the presidency in 2022.
“Yoon Suk Yeol was the most powerful prosecutor-general ever,” said Han Dong-soo, a former judge who was head of internal inspection at the prosecutors’ office under Yoon. “He used the office to carry out his plan to become president and in doing so, his actions were daring.”
Han recalls the future president remarking at a dinner he hosted with free-flowing drinks in 2020: “If I had gone to the military academy, I would have staged a coup.”
Yoon led high-profile investigations of the politically powerful, billed as a crusade against corruption that launched him into the public eye and generated the support that led to his victory in the presidential election.
But once in the presidency, he struggled to emulate his courtroom victories. Instead, he became increasingly embittered by unrelenting battles with opponents that drew out a recklessness that a former prosecution rival said was his defining trait.
By the time Yoon briefly imposed martial law in December, he was badly bruised politically.
SCANDALS, ‘AMERICAN PIE’
Yoon’s presidency was overshadowed by scandals involving his wife, Kim Keon Hee, who was accused of inappropriately accepting a Christian Dior handbag as a gift.
Yoon apologised after his conservative party suffered a crushing parliamentary election defeat last year, blamed on the scandal. But he continued to reject calls for a probe into the affair and into an allegation of stock price manipulation involving his wife and her mother.
The prosecutors’ office that investigated the allegations did not press charges against the first lady.
The past year was marked by repeated clashes with the opposition Democratic Party, while Yoon’s pro-business policies and initiatives to tackle an ageing society remained stymied. His 2025 budget was slashed by an opposition angry over his refusal to answer lingering questions about his wife.
Yoon’s struggles at home contrasted with his relative success internationally.
His push to reverse a decades-long diplomatic row with neighbouring Japan and join Tokyo in three-way security cooperation with their key mutual ally, the United States, are widely seen as his signature foreign policy achievement.
Yoon’s ability to bond on a personal level, seen as the trait that gave him his early career success, was on full display at a White House event in 2023, when he took the stage and belted out the 1970s pop hit “American Pie” for an astonished then-President Joe Biden and a delighted crowd.
SHAMANS, HIGH SCHOOL BUDDIES
Born to a well-to-do family in Seoul, Yoon excelled at school and entered the elite Seoul National University to study law. But his penchant for partying caused him to repeatedly fail the bar exam before passing on the ninth try at age 30.
Yoon shot to national fame in 2016 when, as the chief investigator probing then-President Park Geun-hye for corruption, he was asked if he was out for revenge and responded that prosecutors were not “gangsters”.
The role he played in jailing Park and his surprise appointment as head of the powerful Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office marked the start of a dizzying rise to power.
Two years later, as prosecutor-general, he spearheaded a corruption probe of a close ally to the next president, Moon Jae-in. That made him a darling of conservatives frustrated with Moon’s liberal policies, setting Yoon up to be a candidate for president in 2022.
His term got off to a rocky start when he pushed ahead with moving the presidential office from the traditional Blue House compound to a new site, sparking questions whether it was because of a feng shui belief that the old compound was cursed. Yoon denied any involvement by himself or his wife with a shaman.
When Yoon refused to fire top officials after a 2022 Halloween crowd crush killed 159 people, he was accused of protecting his “yes men”. One was Safety Minister Lee Sang-min, a graduate of Yoon’s high school.
Another alumnus of the Choongam High School in Seoul was Kim Yong-hyun, who spearheaded the presidential office move, then served as the presidential security service chief and later as defence minister. Kim, the main figure advising Yoon to declare martial law, was also charged with insurrection. He too denies the charges.
Shin Yul, a Myongji University political science professor, said Yoon’s downfall political near-demise was likely due to him listening to the wrong people and that he probably “still thinks he did the right thing” in declaring martial law.
(Reporting by Jack Kim)
