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Left: Former President Yoon Suk-yeol departs the Seoul Excessive Prosecutors’ Workplace on July 5, 2025, after showing for questioning in a particular counsel probe. Proper: On Oct. 19, 2024, North Korea printed pictures of the wreckage of a drone that crashed in Pyongyang, claiming it was of the identical make and mannequin as these utilized by the South Korean army. (KCNA/Yonhap)
What sort of individual was Yoon Suk-yeol? Since his days as a prosecutor, I’ve written quite a bit about Prosecutor-Normal Yoon Suk-yeol, presidential candidate Yoon Suk-yeol, President Yoon Suk-yeol, and former President Yoon Suk-yeol. However regardless of all of the ink I’ve spilled on him, I’m unsure about what sort of individual he’s. That’s as a result of each new revelation concerning the phrases, actions, and crimes of Yoon that comes out is just past all comprehension.
The particular counsel investigating final yr’s tried coup indicted Yoon, former Protection Minister Kim Yong-hyun, and former Protection Counterintelligence Command chief Yeo In-hyeong on costs of treason on Nov. 10.
Treason is a sophisticated felony cost in Korea. Our felony code was enacted in 1953; it’s divided into normal provisions, particular person provisions, and addenda. The person provisions listing the crimes topic to punishment. Chapter 1 of the Prison Act identifies the crime of revolt; the second chapter identifies the crime of treason, or “crimes regarding international aggression.” Their outstanding placement is suggestive of how significantly the crimes of revolt and treason are taken.
Treason is the act of abetting a international adversary in army or hostile acts in opposition to one’s personal nation; it could additionally embody the availability of human and materiel to an enemy in order to hazard the existence or security of 1’s personal nation.
There are numerous types of treason. They contain incitement of international aggression; siding with the enemy; levying troopers for an enemy nation; offering sure amenities or tools to the enemy; destroying sure amenities or tools on behalf of the enemy; offering arms or ammunition to the enemy; and espionage.
Along with these seven particular crimes, South Korea’s felony code consists of the crime of “benefiting an enemy by different strategies,” — extra merely, normal treason — which it defines as acts that “injure army pursuits of the Republic of Korea or ship an enemy nation army profit by crimes aside from these specified” within the previous seven articles. The crime carries a penalty of three years to life in jail.
The particular counsel’s indictments in opposition to Yoon Suk-yeol, Kim Yong-hyun and Yeo In-hyung on this cost of normal treason are a significant improvement. But the response has been surprisingly minimal.
There are two causes. First, as a result of it was considerably anticipated, and second, it’s been buried within the controversy attributable to prosecutors forfeiting their attraction within the Daejang improvement corruption case involving President Lee Jae Myung.
Regardless, I used to be very curious concerning the specifics of the costs introduced in opposition to Yoon and his two deputies. However I couldn’t entry the indictments. Indictments made by prosecutors or particular counsels are usually made public by means of the Nationwide Meeting. There are additionally many situations of reporters getting a glimpse of indictments by means of the places of work of particular person lawmakers.
It was totally different this time. The particular counsel despatched the indictments to the Nationwide Meeting beneath the situation that any distribution or copying of their contents can be prohibited. It’s as a result of they include delicate army secrets and techniques. Even throughout the Nationwide Meeting, solely those that have acquired particular clearance can entry the indictments.
Round per week later, the content material of the indictments began making it into the press. The indictment states that Yoon spoke of his “emergency govt authority” in entrance of Kim Chong-hyuk, former member of the Folks Energy Celebration interim management, and others in November 2022 — six months into his presidency.
“I’ve emergency govt authority. I’ll raze every thing to the bottom. I don’t care if I get shot to demise, I’ll be certain that to carry all of it down,” he reportedly mentioned.
The indictment additionally says that in a go to to Hawaii in July 2024, Yoon known as Han Dong-hoon — his first justice minister, who went on to guide the Folks Energy Celebration — a “commie.”
Various inflammatory feedback, nonetheless, I used to be extra occupied with why Yoon tried to contain North Korea in his plot. The indictments reportedly embody the next data.
“The defendants thought that to declare martial regulation, they wanted a ‘wartime scenario or a nationwide emergency that warranted army intervention to take care of public order and security,’ or on the very least a scenario that might be equated to such. To satisfy the authorized necessities for declaring martial regulation and to safe the justification for martial regulation, they tried to impress North Korea, throughout an armistice scenario, to interact in army power in opposition to our army or our individuals, or to interact in a provocation of comparable severity, thereby escalating inter-Korean army tensions and making a nationwide emergency.”
“Whereas the defendants thought of efficient strategies for making a scenario in a brief time period that might require martial regulation, they determined to impress and elicit a army provocation from North Korea by means of army operations designed to psychologically provoke North Korea — referred to as psychological warfare — akin to humiliating high North Korean management, together with Kim Jong-un, thereby producing a scenario through which North Korea engages in a army provocation akin to restricted struggle or an escalation of inter-Korean army tensions to the purpose of requiring the declaration of a nationwide emergency.”
In fact, that is simply what the indictments declare occurred. The particular counsel is obligated to supply proof that corroborates the claims made within the indictments within the upcoming trials. I’m very curious concerning the courts’ remaining conclusions.
Then-President Yoon Suk-yeol (proper) speaks to then-Protection Minister Kim Yong-hyun throughout a army parade for Armed Forces Day on Oct. 1, 2024. Each have now been charged with treason, on high of standing trial on costs of revolt. (Hankyoreh file picture)
Lack of life and financial troubles
If Kim Jong-un had fallen for Yoon’s lure and responded militarily, what would have occurred? On the very least, it could have led to a restricted struggle. Harmless troopers and civilians would have misplaced their lives. The financial system would have collapsed. Imports and exports would have come to a standstill. Capital flight would have occurred, and shares would have plummeted.
Yoon most likely overtly declared martial regulation with such expectations in thoughts. The Nationwide Meeting wouldn’t have been in a position to rescind martial regulation. In an precise struggle, they don’t have any purpose to rescind it. Politicians like Lee Jae Myung and Han Dong-hoon would have been arrested and detained by martial regulation troops. The press would have fallen beneath their management. It’s horrible to even take into consideration.
Luckily, that’s not what occurred. We don’t know why, however the North Korean management didn’t have interaction with the psychological operations. Yoon declared martial regulation with out correct grounds, and he was faraway from workplace within the ensuing impeachment trial, which has been adopted by a felony trial.
The state has an obligation to guard the lives and property of its residents. The president is the chief of that state. The particular counsel claims that Yoon tried to impress North Korea to realize the grounds for justifying martial regulation. If that’s true, and if the courtroom finds him responsible of the crimes alleged within the indictment, then Yoon gambled with the lives of the 51 million individuals who make up the Republic of Korea. An affront to god and man, a heinous crime, a traitor — phrases fail to explain the depravity of Yoon’s evil.
Yoon’s alleged actions are an extension of a phenomenon identified in Korea because the “north winds,” a phrase that refers back to the persistent means through which fearmongering about North Korea has change into a function of election season in South Korea.
In December 1987, on the day earlier than a presidential election, Kim Hyon-hui was captured and transported to South Korea for bombing Korean Air Flight 858. The general public was extra within the North Korean spy than within the election. The environment finally benefited Roh Tae-woo, Democratic Justice Celebration candidate and former army normal.
Forward of the presidential election in December 1992, the Company for Nationwide Safety Planning made an announcement in regards to the Lee Seon-sil espionage incident. The company poured fuel on the fireplace by declaring {that a} secretary to Kim Dae-jung, candidate for the Democratic Celebration, had given paperwork concerning the nationwide price range to a North Korean spy.
Park Hee-tae, a spokesman of the Liberal Democratic Celebration, mentioned, “In case you have a look at the orders given to the North Korean spies, it tells them to unite behind a single Democratic Celebration ticket and do every thing to get that candidate elected.”
The Company for Nationwide Safety Planning confirmed that such orders had certainly been given to the spies from North Korea.
Proper on the finish of the marketing campaign cycle, the company despatched out false data that “North Korea’s Kim Il-sung is utilizing broadcasts into the South to induce individuals to vote for Kim Dae-jung.”
Proper earlier than the final election on April 11, 1996, North Korea deployed numerous closely armed troops to the Joint Safety Space in Panmunjom. The Nationwide Congress for New Politics, led by Kim Dae-jung, claimed that the North Korean troops had been appearing in cahoots with the South Korean authorities in a charade. That they had no proof.
The “north wind” blew as soon as extra earlier than the presidential election of December 1997. Oh Ik-je, South Korean politician and former chief of the Cheondoist spiritual motion, crossed over into North Korea. He then appeared on a Pyongyang broadcast and claimed that he had “mentioned the difficulty of reunification with the Nationwide Convention for Unification candidate many occasions.” His assertion implicated high officers throughout the South Korean authorities.
A pastor who had visited North Korea then revealed copies of three letters that North Korean Vice President Kim Pyong-sik supposedly despatched to Kim Dae-jung in Tokyo. It was clearly an operation geared toward fearmongering about North Korea. But it didn’t work. The voters had change into smart to such allegations showing earlier than elections after which disappearing after them. They didn’t fall for it this time, and Kim Dae-jung was elected president.
In 1998, quickly after Kim was inaugurated, Han Seong-ki, Oh Jeong-eun, and Jang Seok-jung had been indicted and detained on costs of requesting that North Korea hearth on Panmunjom to be able to assist then presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang. In a riff on the “north wind” idea, it grew to become referred to as the “gun wind” incident.
Lee Hoi-chang protested vociferously. In the course of the trial, there was controversy over allegations of torture. The courtroom finally dominated that whereas a request had been made for gunfire, it had been spontaneous, slightly than premeditated.
On this method, these with a vested curiosity in sustaining the division of Korea — particularly, Korean conservatives — have dragged North Korea into home politics and elections time and time once more, for so long as anybody can bear in mind. It’s my view that this conduct is an expression of the genes they inherited from their forefathers, by which I imply the traitors and quislings who bought their nation out to Japan and turned freedom fighters over to Japanese police.
To get again to the subject at hand, let’s return to a number of the notes written by Yeo In-hyeong, the Protection Counterintelligence Commander chief, on his telephone, which the particular counsel factors to as proof of treason. This was written at 2:06 pm on Oct. 18, 2024:
“We should discover and exploit a once-in-a-lifetime alternative to attain speedy ends in an unstable scenario. Focusing on that completely forces a response by damaging pleasure — Pyongyang, two nuclear amenities, bases of idolization like Samjiyon and many others., Wonsan international vacationer web site, Kim Jong-un’s trip dwelling. The ultimate state is the normalization of low-intensity drone battle. (Recon and leaflet operations. However bodily capturing down if trespassing in airspace.”
In October and November of 2024, South Korea’s army flew drones over Pyongyang and dropped propaganda leaflets on a number of events. North Korea was incensed, and the peninsula regarded as if it was vulnerable to returning to struggle.
These are abominable individuals. They can’t be forgiven.
By Seong Han-yong, senior editorial author
Please direct questions or feedback to [english@hani.co.kr]
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