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Yoon Suk Yeol13th President of the Republic of Korea Flag since May 10, 2022
Date of Birth: 18.12.1960
Country:  South Korea |
Content:
- Yoon Suk-yeol: 13th President of South Korea
- Legal Career
- Prosecutorial Career
- Prosecutor General
- Political Career
Yoon Suk-yeol: 13th President of South Korea
Early Life and EducationYoon Suk-yeol was born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1960. His father was a respected educator who earned degrees from Yonsei University and Hitotsubashi University, later founding the Korean Statistical Society and serving as a full member of the National Academy of Sciences. Yoon's mother taught at Ewha Womans University before leaving her position after marriage.
Yoon attended Chungam High School and studied law at Seoul National University. In the aftermath of the Gwangju Uprising, he and his colleagues organized a mock trial where he prosecuted Chun Doo-hwan, then President of the Republic, demanding the death penalty. Following the mock trial, Yoon fled to Gangwon Province.
Legal Career
Yoon passed the first part of the bar exam while in his fourth year of university but failed the second part. He continued to fail for the next nine years due to reasons that remain unclear, although his mock trial prosecution of the president is widely believed to be a contributing factor. He finally passed the bar exam in 1991.
Prosecutorial Career
Yoon began his career in the Daegu District Prosecutors' Office in 1994. He led the Special Investigation Unit and the Central Investigation Unit, investigating cases involving corruption. In 1999, he arrested assistant commissioner Park Hee-won for corruption, despite strong objections from bureaucrats in the Kim Dae-jung government.
After briefly working as a lawyer at Bae, Kim & Lee in January 2002, Yoon resigned, feeling that he was not suited for the role. Upon his return to the prosecution, he brought charges against several of President Roh Moo-hyun's supporters, including Ahn Hee-jung and Kang Geum-won. In 2006, he apprehended Chung Mong-koo for his involvement in a bribery case at Hyundai Motor Company.
In 2008, Yoon served on an independent counsel team investigating the BBK stock price manipulation incident involving President Lee Myung-bak. In 2013, he headed a special investigation team that examined the National Intelligence Service's (NIS) involvement in the 2012 public opinion manipulation scandal. Yoon sought prosecution of former NIS chief Won Sei-hoon for violating the Public Official Election Act. He also accused Minister of Justice Hwang Kyo-ahn of influencing his investigation, resulting in his demotion from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office to the Daegu and Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office.
Later, Yoon led the investigation in Special Prosecutor Park Young-soo's team, which investigated allegations related to the 2016 Choi Soon-sil scandal involving Samsung Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong and then-South Korean President Park Geun-hye. This scandal ultimately led to the president's impeachment in December 2016.
On May 19, 2017, newly elected President Moon Jae-in appointed Yoon as head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office. Yoon indicted two former presidents, Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, three former NIS chiefs, former Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae, and over 100 other former officials and business leaders during his tenure. He also directed an investigation into accounting fraud at Samsung.
Prosecutor General
On June 17, 2019, Yoon was appointed as Prosecutor General, replacing Moon Moo-il. His nomination was welcomed by the ruling Democratic Party and Party for Democracy and Peace, but opposed by Liberty Korea and Bareunmirae. The Justice Party remained neutral on the appointment. He was formally inaugurated as the new Prosecutor General on July 16, and his term began nine days later.
President Moon instructed Yoon to maintain neutrality, adding that all forms of corruption should be strictly investigated, even if they involved the government. Yoon launched an investigation into Justice Minister Cho Kuk, who was implicated in various scandals. His decision to prosecute was welcomed by the opposition but condemned by the Democratic Party and its supporters.
After Choo Mi-ae was appointed as the new Justice Minister, she filed lawsuits against several prosecutors close to Yoon. Choo explained her decision by claiming that Yoon had failed to submit a reorganization plan for his department, which she had requested. However, this was seen by the Blue House as retaliation for the prosecution of Cho Kuk.
In April 2020, Democratic Party lawmakers renewed their criticism of Yoon and called for his resignation, as investigations into election law violations involving both ruling and opposition politicians had been launched, as well as allegations of voter fraud in the 2018 Ulsan mayoral election.
On November 24, 2020, Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae suspended Yoon from his duties, citing alleged ethical violations, abuse of authority, and interference in investigations involving his associates and family members. Yoon filed for an injunction against the minister's suspension order, which was approved by the Seoul Administrative Court on December 1, temporarily suspending the suspension. On December 16, the Ministry of Justice suspended Yoon for two months, upholding four out of six major charges in a disciplinary action. This decision was later approved by President Moon. However, on December 24, following an injunction filed with the Seoul Administrative Court, the suspension was lifted as the court accepted Yoon's claim that the process leading to his suspension was unfair.
On March 4, 2021, Yoon Seok-yeol resigned, which was accepted by President Moon.
Political Career
2022 Presidential CampaignYoon emerged as a potential presidential candidate for the 2022 election following the Cho Kuk scandal (in which Yoon investigated Cho's falsified academic achievements) and appeared as a formidable contender in public opinion polls since at least January 2020. In a poll conducted in January 2021, which included all possible presidential candidates, Yoon led as the most preferred choice with 30.4% of respondents, higher than the ruling Democratic Party's Lee Jae-myung and Lee Nak-yeon.
On June 29, 2021, Yoon formally declared his candidacy for the 2022 presidential election. On July 12, he registered with the National Election Commission as an independent candidate.
On July 30, he officially joined the conservative People Power Party. Prior to this, Yoon had been politically independent, although his popular support came predominantly from conservatives.
During the primary campaign, Yoon faced criticism for several perceived gaffes and controversial statements. In July, Yoon advocated for a 120-hour workweek, criticizing President Moon's policy of a 52-hour maximum workweek. Yoon argued for the deregulation of food safety standards because, according to him, "the poor should be allowed to eat substandard food at lower prices," citing economist Milton Friedman's 1980 book "Free to Choose: A Personal Statement" as inspiration for this idea. In August, Yoon asserted that the recent feminist movement in South Korea had become a significant factor exacerbating the country's low birth rate. Later that same week, Yoon stated in an interview with Busan Ilbo that there was "virtually no radiation leak" as a result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster because "the reactors themselves did not collapse."
On September 2, news outlet Newsverse published an article alleging that while serving as Prosecutor General, Yoon had ordered a senior prosecutor and politician to file politically motivated criminal complaints against Democratic Party politicians in the lead-up to the 2020 parliamentary elections in an attempt to influence the election. The article claimed that Yoon instructed senior prosecutor Son Jun-seong to file complaints against opposition Democratic Party candidates and ordered National Assembly member Kim Woon to submit criminal complaints against politicians and journalists friendly to the Democratic Party. In response to the allegations, the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office launched an internal investigation. Yoon denied the allegations and reported the whistleblower, Cho Sung-eun, and National Intelligence Service Director Park Ji-won, in response to the accusations and the investigation. Soon after the allegations were published, support for People Power Party primary frontrunner Hong Joon-pyo surged, making Hong Yoon's most significant rival early in the election cycle.
During the first primary debate on October 1, featuring all qualified People Power Party presidential candidates, Yoon had the Chinese hanja character for "king" written on his left hand, a good luck talisman often inscribed at the suggestion of shamans. It soon became widely known that Yoon had also had the marking on his hand during the previous two primary debates. Yoon's main rivals, including Hong Joon-pyo and Yoo Seong-min, criticized Yoon for his use of shamanistic practices and unfavorably compared him to the scandal involving former President Park Geun-hye, who had allowed a shaman to wield undue influence over her decisions. In response to the criticism, Yoon stated that "a supporter drew it as a message of support, urging me to be confident like a king during the debates."
In October, Yoon made a complimentary remark about former South Korean military dictator Chun Doo-hwan. At a meeting with People Power Party officials in Busan, Yoon stated that "there are still many people who believe that Chun succeeded in politics, except for the military coup and the Gwangju uprising." Chun Doo-hwan is a highly controversial figure in South Korea, held responsible for numerous human rights abuses, including the torture and murder of innocent civilians. Yoon later apologized for his remarks. However, shortly after apologizing, he posted an image on his Instagram account of himself feeding an apple to his dog. As the words "apple" and "apology" are homographs in Korean
