Written by Jack Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) – Yoon Suk-yul became the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested when he finally backed down on Wednesday in a weeks-long standoff with authorities investigating him over an alleged rebellion. Yoon, 64, a powerful political survivor who has become increasingly isolated midway through his five-year term, faces personal scandals, stubborn opposition and divisions within his party.
His legal risks contrast with his pre-political career as a top prosecutor, which brought him into the public eye and generated so much support that he won the 2022 presidential election, his first elected office.
Since narrowly winning that election, Yoon has been embittered by constant battles that led to the recklessness that one former rival said was his hallmark.
By the time Yoon briefly imposed martial law on December 3 in a move that stunned South Koreans, he had been deeply politically traumatized. He was suspended from his duties after Parliament impeached him on December 14 for attempting to impose martial law.
Yoon's political fate is in the hands of the Constitutional Court as the legal risks he faces grow.
He faces multiple criminal investigations for sedition – the only charge from which South Korean presidents are not immune – including a probe led by the Corruption Investigation Bureau of senior officials.
Yoon has used his refusal to comply with what he called the CIO's illegal arrest warrant to rally supporters in the face of mounting legal and political problems.
Secluded in his fortified residence in downtown Seoul, Yoon and the presidential security service played a high-stakes game with authorities who tried to arrest him for two weeks before he finally agreed to appear for questioning.
In a letter issued during his arrest, Yoon said he did not confess to the illegal operation, but surrendered to avoid bloodshed.
Yoon had earlier vowed to “struggle to the end” and called on his followers to help him save the country from “anti-state forces.”
Scandals, threats of prosecution, and “American Pie”
The past year of Yoon's presidency has been overshadowed by a scandal involving his wife, who was accused of accepting an inappropriately high sum. Christian Dior (EPA:) Handbag as a gift.
Yoon apologized after the scandal was seen as a major reason for the Pakistan People's Party's defeat in the parliamentary elections in April. But he continued to reject calls for an investigation into the scandal and into allegations of stock price manipulation involving his wife and her mother.
The Attorney General's Office, which investigated these accusations, decided not to file charges against the First Lady.
Yoon's struggles at home have overshadowed his relative success on the international stage.
His bold push to end a decades-long diplomatic dispute with Japan and join Tokyo in a trilateral security cooperation with the United States is widely viewed as his signature foreign policy achievement.
Yeun's ability to relate on a personal level, seen as the trait that gave him his early success, was on full display at a White House event in 2023, when he took the stage and sang the 1970s pop hit “American Pie.” President Joe Biden and the cheering crowd were stunned.
Shamans, high school buddies
Yoon was born into a wealthy family in Seoul, and initially 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 attempt.
Yoon achieved national notoriety in 2016 when, as the chief investigator probing then-President Park Geun-hye for corruption, he was asked if he wanted revenge, and he replied that prosecutors were not gangsters.
Three years ago, Park Yoon was suspended and then fired from a team investigating a high-profile case against the National Spy Agency. The move was widely seen as punishment for challenging her authority.
The role he played in Park's imprisonment and his dramatic return as head of the powerful Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office marked the beginning of a stunning rise to power.
Two years later, he became South Korea's attorney general, where he led a corruption investigation into a close ally of future President Moon Jae-in. This endeared him to conservatives frustrated with Moon's liberal policies, making Yoon a presidential candidate in 2022.
But his presidency got off to a rocky start when he went ahead with moving the presidential office from the Blue House complex to a new location, raising questions about whether it was because of a feng shui belief that the old presidential complex had become cursed. Yoon denied any involvement between him or his wife with the shaman.
When Yoon refused to fire top officials after a mob stampede on Halloween in 2022 killed 159 people, he was accused of protecting his “supporters.” One of them was Safety Minister Lee Sang-min, a fellow Yoon High School graduate.
Another graduate of Seoul's Cheonggam High School is Kim Young-hyun, the man who led the relocation of the presidential office, becoming head of the presidential security service and then being appointed defense minister in September.
A senior military official said Kim was one of the two people who recommended that Yoon declare martial law. And he was mine too.
