How will history remember Yoon Suk Yeol?

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How will history remember Yoon Suk Yeol?

Published: 14 Jul. 2025, 00:01

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Chang Se-jeong

The author is an editorial writer of the JoongAng Ilbo.

As former President Yoon Suk Yeol spends his days in a solitary cell just over two square meters (21.5 square feet) in size at the Seoul Detention Center, speculation lingers about what thoughts occupy his mind. Does he long for his late father, who was buried in a memorial park in Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi, in 2023? Does he wish to see his ailing mother? Or perhaps he now regrets a marriage that, by his own admission, went against his parents’ wishes.

Maybe he resents the special prosecutors who raided his wife’s residence at the Acrovista apartment complex, leaving her behind to face scrutiny alone. Given Yoon’s famously hot temper, enduring the sweltering heat inside a poorly ventilated cell with only an old fan must be grueling. With reports of worsening diabetes and eye complications, the 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) heat and muggy nights are likely robbing him of sleep. He may be replaying the unlikely path that took him from a sidelined prosecutor to Seoul Central District prosecutor and then prosecutor general during the Moon Jae-in administration. After clashing with the administration that promoted him, he went on to win the presidency himself.

Former President Yoon Suk Yeol leaves the Seoul Central District Court in southern Seoul after the pretrial detention hearing on July 9. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

But reflection may now be futile. Whatever regret Yoon harbors, it comes too late. It was he who turned away from the counsel of media outlets concerned about the nation's direction and instead placed his trust in a handful of far-right YouTube personalities. He also cut off communication with senior figures in the legal and political communities who warned him against allowing his wife to become involved in state affairs.

Yoon once told close aides, half-jokingly, “She said to me, ‘You be the prosecutor general, I’ll be the president.’” Despite this, he never appointed a special inspector to block potential misconduct by relatives and in-laws. It was also Yoon who dismissed objections from cabinet ministers and abruptly declared martial law on December 3, an act that damaged Korea’s international standing and pushed the conservative bloc to the brink of collapse.

The consequences did not end there. The prosecution service, which should have served as a bulwark against political corruption, is now teetering due to what critics call Yoon’s “original sin.” In a press conference on July 3, President Lee Jae Myung reiterated the need to separate prosecutorial powers for investigation and indictment, calling it “a case of just deserts.” Ruling Democratic Party lawmakers, including Chung Cheong-rae and Park Chan-dae, both running for party leadership, are pledging to accelerate prosecutorial reform. The tables have turned.

While the current Constitution guarantees prosecutors the authority to request warrants (Articles 12 and 16), it does not explicitly require the existence of the prosecution service itself. This has fueled interpretation that the Democratic Party’s proposal to dismantle the prosecution by transferring major crime investigations to a new agency under the Ministry of Interior and indictments to another under the Ministry of Justice is legally feasible without constitutional amendment.

This prospect has shaken the prosecution. Prosecutors worry that the institution could be dismantled altogether. Prosecutor General Sim Woo-jung’s resignation after just nine months in office is viewed as a sign of resignation to this political momentum. Few credible candidates are willing to succeed him, knowing they may have to preside over the closure of the very institution they are asked to lead. Rumors swirl that while the Democratic Party is pushing for a prosecutor from Honam, the combined region of North and South Jeolla Provinces in southwestern Korea, who came up under the Moon administration, President Lee’s legal circle favors a candidate from Chungcheong. But under current circumstances, few see the post as anything but a poisoned chalice.

A vehicle carrying former President Yoon Suk Yeol enters the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi, on July 9 after he underwent a pretrial detention hearing. [YONHAP]

Yoon now faces trial under harsher conditions following his rearrest. History will eventually deliver its verdict on his presidency, which ended in tragedy and controversy. Will he be remembered as an inexperienced commander-in-chief who declared martial law in a misguided attempt to neutralize pro-North forces? Or as a misguided ruler who, blinded by affection for a woman accused of greed and superstition, lost control of the state?

In a 2021 phone call with the liberal YouTube channel "Voice of Seoul," Yoon’s wife stated, “We were originally leftists. But because of Cho Kuk, we changed sides.” It sounded like a confession — that they had turned conservative not out of conviction, but as a survival tactic after falling out with the Moon administration during the Cho Kuk scandal. If true, it casts their political conversion as strategic, not ideological — more Trojan Horse than true believer.

If so, conservatives facing ruin have little reason to cling to the Yoon era. For the conservative movement to survive and rebuild, as its innovation committees now aim to do, it must draw a clear line between itself and false conservatism. That would be the first step toward renewal.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.