Yoon Suk Yeol: South Korea's ex-president jailed for life over martial law attempt

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx28y8xd1vjo

Pay attention America - this is what you do with anti-Democratic leaders if you want to respect and preserve democracy.

360 points · 28 comments · view on lemmy.world

28 Comments

wesker@lemmy.sdf.org · 83 pts · 180d (9 replies)

America when their President is a PDF file:

"There's nothing we can do, he's the President."

kingofras@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 180d (2 replies)

Only because there’s at least 2 PDF files on the Supreme Court who gave him presidential immunity.

village604@adultswim.fan · 5 pts · 180d (1 reply)

And the US doesn't have the option for a vote of no confidence.

kingofras@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 180d

“I just like beer”

“Ah you’re alright then, here’s a lifetime appointment. We’ve never believed the women anyway, and today is not a great day to start with that, gotta run, or I’ll be late picking up my daughters from tennis.”

Zidane@lemmy.ca · 20 pts · 180d

Can't type out pedophile on lemmy now? Did I miss something?

atzanteol@sh.itjust.works · -3 pts · 180d (4 replies)

To be fair, Yoon isn't the current president...

zaphod@sopuli.xyz · 26 pts · 180d

To be fair, he was impeached and actually removed from office...

Derpenheim@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 180d (2 replies)

Yes because he was outside for starting a coup.

America reelected the president who started a coup.

BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 180d (1 reply)

Could you imagine if we let Hitler off the hook, because he'll do better, and then he got back in power a few years later, and was WORSE?

We did that with Trump.

regedit@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 179d

They did that with Hitler, too, though. Unless you were making that point as a joke.

ceenote@lemmy.world · 57 pts · 180d

UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 37 pts · 180d (4 replies)

So, funny story, this is the sixth South Korean President to come under indictment.

Recent and Notable Imprisonments:

  • Yoon Suk Yeol (Served 2022–2025): Sentenced to life in prison in February 2026 for leading an insurrection after briefly imposing martial law in December 2024.
  • Park Geun-hye (Served 2013–2017): Impeached, removed from office, and sentenced to 25 years for corruption and abuse of power.
  • Lee Myung-bak (Served 2008–2013): Sentenced to 15 years for embezzlement and bribery.
  • Chun Doo-hwan (Served 1980–1988): Convicted of mutiny, treason, and corruption in 1996.
  • Roh Tae-woo (Served 1988–1993): Convicted of treason, mutiny, and corruption, serving over two years.
  • Roh Moo-hyun (Served 2003–2008): Committed suicide while under investigation for corruption.

Almost every living former leader since the 1980s has been jailed, marking a pattern of post-presidential legal proceedings

Cool that these officials do get prosecuted. But maybe we should consider how they get elected to begin with.

green_red_black@slrpnk.net · 22 pts · 180d (1 reply)
[ removed ]
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 180d

It's been something of a round-robin of oligarch friendly presidents year by year since Park's assassination in '79.

That might be part of the problem.

Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 180d (1 reply)

You'd think they would learn from what happened to the last guy and not do that.

UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 180d

Why even be president if you can't get weird with it?

BigMacHole@sopuli.xyz · 27 pts · 180d

You can get ARRESTED for trying to Overthrow your Country? I thought you get REELECTED when that Happens so your Opposition DOESNT Look Political?

BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 14 pts · 180d (1 reply)

He basically did the same thing Trump did, but HIS country put him in prison for life, b cause that's the punishment he EARNED, and deserves. See, Democrats, THAT'S how it's done.

yabbadabaddon@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 179d

They wanted to execute him

taiyang@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 180d (3 replies)

As much as I believe Trump should face literally any punishment over January 6th riots, the Korean ex-president ordered a martial law shutdown and involved the military. This is more akin to what Trump is going to do in 2026 and/or 2028 when he suspends elections over martial law.

Inciting a mob is still illegal, but it's a bit harder to prove beyond a reasonable doubt than ordering your military to stop Congress from acting. Of course, I'm not counting on Congress to even hold him accountable for abusing martial law (he's committed crimes magnitudes worse than Jan 6th since then without any repercussions), just that we haven't seen the martial law version yet.

zenitsu@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 179d
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works · -1 pts · 180d (1 reply)

Spend some time in a city invaded by Ice and tell me that's not martial law.

taiyang@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 180d

It's not legally martial law, but I haven't claimed anything he's going is legal. Nor are all things legal okay-- tear gassing people is legal, somehow, but not ok.

But I'm in a city he sent ICE. On average it's more a secret police operation than a military coup.

mrmacduggan@lemmy.ml · 7 pts · 180d

Accountability in the USA has been so poor that it's forcing other countries to follow through just to prove they're better (they are better, to be clear)

Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 180d

Now do the US.

pelespirit@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 180d

I mean, that's one way you could go. OR one side could pretend it's not a coup and threaten every republican that doesn't go along with it.

HexParte@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 180d

@RonaldRump, you seeing this shit? This is awful. I can’t believe they’d do this to a leader of their government who tried taking over with the military. Despicable. Anyways, you should watch out.

WanderWisley@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 180d

Hey America take notes…

mattyroses@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 176d