Patience is a virtue, but according to our fast-paced society, waiting is a vice. In 2022, 75% of Americans said that they often left a physical line before it’s their turn. Yet for things we so desperately want, like that newest iPhone, or the new clothing line our favorite store released, it seems that we can wait, no matter how long it seems.
And in July of 2024, more than 30,000 South Korean citizens anxiously sat in front of their screens, waiting for a crashed website to come back up. Their reason for waiting? An online petition in the National Assembly with almost a million signatures calling for the impeachment of the then-president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol.
Unlike many other politicians, Yoon didn’t start out as a politician. In fact, he originally was a prosecutor, failing the bar exam 8 times before passing it on his 9th. Following this, he worked at various district Public Prosecutor’s Office in Daegu, Seoul, and Busan starting in 1994, before moving to a law firm, returning to the Prosecutors Office, and eventually becoming head prosecutor of Nonsan branch under the Daejeon District Prosecutors Office in 2008. In 2013, after he became head prosecutor of Yeoju branch, he became known for leading a special investigation opinion-rigging case concerning the National Intelligence Service. His famous words to lawmakers at the time were, “I am not loyal to the person but loyal to the organization,” exploding his support with the progressives in Korea.
But the work he would be most renowned for is in leading the corruption scandal involving then-President Park Geun-Hye in 2016, eventually leading to her impeachment. Henceforth, successor President Moon Jae-In promoted Yoon to head of Seoul District Prosecutor’s Office. After the then-prosecutor general finished his term, Moon handed over the position to Yoon in 2019.
Unexpectedly, however, Yoon utilized that power to investigate the Moon administration and criticized the Justice Ministry as well as the Democratic Party’s plan to reform prosecution. As they disputed, anti-Moon supporters and conservatives began supporting him, especially since the conservatives had lost major elections in the last four years and had no leading presidential candidates.
Even with his suspension and reinstatement as Prosecutor General, Yoon continued to be a leading figure in the 2022 Presidential Election. In 2021, he officially joined the conservative People Power Party, but went under fire for several controversial statements. Some included advocating for the 120-hour work week in comparison to his predecessor, Moon’s 52-hour maximum work week, stating that Korea’s rising feminist movement was an important element in the declining birth rate, or dismissing the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, saying: “the reactors themselves didn’t collapse.”
Despite other rising controversies, Yoon won the People Power Party’s nomination for the 2022 election in November 2021, before winning the Presidential Election by only 0.73%, the lowest margin in all of South Korea History, in March 2022.
From the start of his presidency, he faced backlash at his attempt at policies such as increasing the maximum working hours, abolishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, or using an oversimplified solution for the ongoing medical crisis. Moreover, he faced claims of his wife Kim Keon Hee accepting bribes and being involved in corruption.
In the 2024 parliamentary elections, the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), won 175 seats, over 58% of the seats in the National Assembly in comparison to the 36% of the PPP, marking one of the first times where a president has an opposing assembly during a whole presidency. Yono decided not to attend the National Assembly Ceremony, the first leader to not attend since 1988, which marked the reinstatement of democracy.
And on December 3, 2024, Yoon declared martial law for the first time since 1980, accusing the DPK of fraternizing with the North Korean communists and ordered the arrest of various political figures in both the DPK and PPP. Just one day later, due to both protests and a unanimous vote by legislators to lift martial law, Yoon and his cabinet lifted martial law. The DPK demanded impeachment proceedings and many called for his resignation. His cabinet, which was mostly made up of alumni from his high school, soon began resigning shortly after.
Though Yoon apologized for declaring martial law, he was impeached on December 14 and successfully arrested on January 15, 2025, as well as being indicted for leading a rebellion on January 26th. Hence, he became the first sitting president in South Korea history to be both arrested and indicted. Now, he’s waiting for his impeachment trial and recently left the courtroom on his sixth hearing of the trial on February 6 for around an hour and thirty minutes, with his legal representative saying that Yoon believed, “It seemed unnecessary for him to be here.”
In light of these dramatic changes overseas, it’s crucial to remember the importance of our human rights and our freedom here in America: essentially not taking these things for granted since you never know if you’ll be the next person to be waiting in front of a screen to sign your name on a protest for your country.