Tag: Yoon Suk-yeol

I really cannot feel bad for Yoon when he was stupid enough to launch such an incompetent martial law bid that got him impeached. When former President Park Geun-hye was imprisoned I felt bad for her because the reasons she was jailed were very suspect. I doubt Yoon will do life in prison because he will eventually get pardoned whenever another conservative leader becomes President, but he will be sitting in jail for quite a number of years until that happens:

A court on Thursday sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to life in prison for his failed bid to impose martial law in 2024, casting the attempt as an insurrection marked by the deployment of troops to the National Assembly.

In the first ruling on the case, the Seoul Central District Court convicted Yoon of leading an insurrection through the martial law bid but handed down a sentence lighter than the death penalty recommended by special prosecutors.

he ruling came 14 months after the former president made the surprise declaration of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, with the stated aim of eradicating anti-state forces, though the order was lifted six hours later following a vote by the National Assembly.

“It is difficult to deny that former President Yoon inwardly aimed to make the National Assembly unable to function properly for a considerable period by blocking and paralyzing the National Assembly’s activities by means of sending troops to the National Assembly to seal it off and arrest key politicians,” Jee Kui-youn, the presiding judge, said during the hearing attended by Yoon and broadcast live on national television.

“It is also recognized that he staged a riot by sending the military.”

Under the Constitution, an insurrection is defined as an act aimed at removing state authority from part or all of the country or the staging of a riot with the purpose of subverting the Constitution.

The court said the declaration of martial law in itself cannot constitute an insurrection, but that in Yoon’s case, the charge held because he aimed to paralyze the functions of a constitutional body.

It also stressed that at the core of the case was Yoon’s deployment of troops to the National Assembly.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Over the weekend former President Yoon learned that he will spend five years in jail for charges related to his martial law decree:

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to five years in prison Friday on charges that included the obstruction of investigators’ attempt to detain him last year.

The Seoul Central District Court handed down the sentence in the first ruling on charges stemming from Yoon’s short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024.

Chief among the charges in Friday’s case was that the then president had ordered the Presidential Security Service to block investigators from executing a warrant to detain him at the official presidential residence in January last year.

Judge Baek Dae-hyun, the presiding judge, chastised Yoon during the hearing attended by the jailed former president and televised live.

“He effectively privatized the armed forces through the public servants of the Presidential Security Service who are loyal to the Republic of Korea for his personal safety and interests,” he said.

“Considering the need to restore the rule of law damaged by the defendant’s crimes, a severe punishment that matches the guilt is necessary.”

The sentence was half of what special counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team had requested last month, saying the former president committed a “grave crime” by “privatizing” state institutions with the aim of concealing and justifying his criminal acts.

In addition to obstructing his detention, Yoon was accused of violating the rights of nine Cabinet members who were not called to a meeting to review his martial law plan, and drafting and later destroying a revised proclamation after the martial law decree was lifted.

He was also charged with ordering the distribution of press statements containing falsehoods about the declaration and the deletion of records from secure phones used by then military commanders.

The judge said Yoon was guilty of all charges except with regard to the rights of two of the nine Cabinet members and the order to distribute false press statements.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

You would think they would just wrap up all these charges into one trial, but here we are with 8 trials:

 Former President Yoon Suk Yeol will receive his first court verdict on charges stemming from his December 2024 imposition of martial law later this week, officials said Thursday.

The Seoul Central District Court will hold the sentencing hearing of Yoon’s trial on special obstruction of public duty and other charges in connection to his failed martial law bid at 2 p.m. Friday.

It marks Yoon’s first sentencing of the eight cases he is standing trial on, including over charges he led an insurrection through his Dec. 3 martial law declaration in 2024.

Friday’s sentencing centers on charges Yoon blocked investigators from detaining him in January last year, violated the rights of nine Cabinet members who were not called to a meeting to review his martial law plan, and drafted and destroyed a revised proclamation after the decree was lifted.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The question becomes will people believe the testimony from someone was an incentive to lie since he is cooperating with the prosecution?:

Han Dong-hoon, the former leader of the People Power Party, said Monday evening he was “grief-stricken and devastated” by courtroom testimony that former President Yoon Suk Yeol wanted him shot and killed.

The remark was part of testimony by former Army Special Warfare Commander Kwak Jong-keun, who told the court that Yoon instructed him on Oct. 1, 2024, to arrest Han and other political figures, saying, “I’ll have him shot to death if I have to.”

Han had been a longtime colleague and confidant to Yoon. He joined then-President Yoon’s Cabinet in May 2022 as justice minister, before later taking over as leader of the then-ruling party in December 2023.

Kwak testified Monday in Yoon’s criminal trial for charges of insurrection and power abuse, related to his imposition of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024. Yoon has denied issuing any such orders.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but Kwak claims the martial law order was issued on October 1st. If that this the case how was the martial law order executed so poorly with over two months to plan for it?

A very different Chuseok experience for former President Yoon and his wife this year:

Then-President Yoon Suk Yeol and then-first lady Kim Keon Hee celebrate the Chuseok holiday in this video message released in 2023. Courtesy of the Presidential Office

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife, Kim Keon Hee, spent their first Chuseok in jail without any special meal, according to the Ministry of Justice, Monday.

Until last year, the ministry’s Korea Correctional Service provided inmates with special meals during the mid-autumn harvest festival that falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, as well as during the Lunar New Year, in accordance with the Enforcement Decree of the Act on Execution of Sentences and Treatment of Inmates.

Due to budget cuts for special meals in prisons this year, however, the agency stopped offering special food during Chuseok and the Lunar New Year.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

For anyone curious what the former President and his wife are eating while in jail that menu sounds very familiar to what ROK Army Soldiers eat from my experience:

With former President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife Kim Keon Hee being held in separate Seoul detention centers, public curiosity has zeroed in on the couple’s daily life behind bars — particularly their meals.

According to the monthly meal plan from correctional authorities, Yoon is expected to have a 1,730 won ($1.25) jail meal consisting of beef and vegetable porridge with steamed potatoes for Wednesday’s breakfast.

The Justice Ministry revealed that three meals are provided per day for every inmate at the Seoul detention center, budgeted at 5,201 won. This amounts to approximately 1,730 won per meal.

Meals for lunch and dinner are served in a traditional Korean style, with rice, soup, side dishes and kimchi. The detained former president, who has been in custody at the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, since July 10, is scheduled to have braised chicken with seasoned dried seaweed and stew with soft tofu for Wednesday’s lunch and dinner, respectively.

Meanwhile, sliced white bread with strawberry jam, salad and sausage are available for the former first lady’s breakfast on Wednesday, according to the Korea Correctional Service.

Kim will have pork kimchi stew with sweet and sour dumplings for lunch, like any other inmate at the Seoul Southern Detention Center. Wednesday’s dinner will be chilled cucumber and seaweed soup with rice and kimchi. Kim’s attorneys have relayed to media that she has not been eating well.

The inmates are provided with nutritious meals totaling over 2,500 calories per day. No outside food is allowed.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

The DP must be really concerned that this judge will not be in favor of convicting Yoon if they are going through all this trouble to remove him:

The Democratic Party (DP) on Monday disclosed photos it claims show a judge overseeing the insurrection trial of former President Yoon Suk Yeol at a hostess bar, shortly after the judge denied allegations in connection with such a hostess bar.

Jee Kui-youn of the Seoul Central District Court has been at the center of the allegations, but flatly denied such allegations of being treated to multiple visits to the hostess bar.

However, Rep. Noh Jong-myeon, the spokesperson for the DP’s election committee, presented images of Jee seated alongside pixelated two individuals at the bar, in what he claimed was taken inside the bar in Seoul’s affluent Gangnam district.

“The interior patterns and props in the two photos are identical,” Noh said, without elaborating on when the photos were taken. “We cannot entrust an insurrection trial to a judge who blatantly lied despite clear photographic evidence.”

Noh called for Jee’s immediate removal from the bench, saying that the party is considering filing the case with the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.