South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol indicted for insurrection

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea hit another political milestone on Sunday, as impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol became the country’s first sitting president ever to be indicted.

Prosecutors decided to formally charge the president with insurrection, the latest fallout from Mr. Yoon’s short-lived effort to declare martial law on Dec. 3. 

Insurrection and treason are the only crimes for which a sitting president — albeit an impeached one — lacks immunity. By law, if found guilty, the court could impose the death penalty or life imprisonment.

“The prosecution has decided to indict Yoon Suk Yeol, who is facing charges of being a ringleader of insurrection,” Han Min-soo, spokesman for the opposition Democratic Party of Korea, told reporters Sunday. “The punishment of the ringleader of insurrection now begins finally.”

Mr. Yoon, frustrated at months of National Assembly obstructionism, said he decreed martial law to foil “anti-state forces” and to investigate alleged election fraud. 

His lawyers insist that the president has a constitutional right to declare martial law, meaning it cannot be considered an insurrection.

“Today’s indictment of the president will remain as a shame in the history of South Korean prosecutors,” Mr. Yoon’s defense team said. “A president’s declaration of martial law can never be rebellion.”

The prosecution’s move Sunday followed a decision by judges a day earlier not to extend a warrant for Mr. Yoon’s detention for questioning. Had prosecutors not brought charges, Mr. Yoon would have been allowed to exit his cell and return to his residence.

The development offers South Koreans much to discuss as the country’s largest national holiday gets underway: Celebrations for Lunar New Year run through Thursday.

Sunday’s drama is the latest in a series of turnarounds.

Mr. Yoon’s shock martial law declaration was overturned within three hours, after National Assembly representatives rallied, broke through police and special forces cordons, and voted down the measure.

Retribution followed swiftly: The conservative president, whose term nominally ends in 2027, was impeached on Dec. 11 and twice summoned for questioning by the Corruption Investigation Office for High Ranking Officials, or CIO.

Mr. Yoon, behind the walls of his residence, at first ignored the summons, only surrendering to police after a lengthy standoff outside his presidential residence in Seoul on Jan. 15.

In solitary confinement, Mr. Yoon refused to answer questions from the CIO, which passed his case on to the powerful state prosecution office on Friday.

That marked an irony for Mr. Yoon: Prior to his political career, he had served as the country’s chief prosecutor. His resume proved to be no defense as prosecutors issued the indictment, leaving Mr. Yoon behind bars indefinitely.

The CIO and prosecutors are not the only bodies deciding Mr. Yoon’s future.

Last week, he was permitted to leave from detention to appear at a hearing of the Constitutional Court. That court has six months to judge whether or not to uphold his impeachment and permanently remove him from office. Six of the court’s eight judges must vote in favor, for impeachment to stand.

If it does, the county must hold a presidential election within two months. But the winner of that competition, should it take place, is also no foregone conclusion, following a marked shift in opinion polls in recent days.

Mr. Yoon and his party had suffered dire approval ratings in the months prior to his Dec. 3 martial law declaration. The first poll after his impeachment, in the second week of December, showed his approval rate at 11% — an all-time low.

But as the conservative Mr. Yoon suffered humiliation after humiliation, and public attention focused on liberal opposition DPK leader Lee Jae-myung, whom some consider an extremist, the mood shifted. Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party has been steadily rising in polls since then.

Respected polling organization Realmeter earlier this month found support for the PPP was rebounding — from 30.6% in its previous poll to 34.4%, while the numbers for Mr. Lee’s DPK had dipped to 45.2% from 45.8%. A Gallup poll on Jan 17, found the PPP actually passing the DPK — 39% to 36 %.

The latest Gallup Korea poll, released on Jan. 24, found that the DPK had regained its lead, with 40% approval to the PPP’s 38%.