As South Korea’s impeached president Yoon awaits fate, his party sees signs of revival By Reuters

By Hyunsoo Yim

SEOUL (Reuters) – The lingering uncertainty over the fate of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and a failed attempt to arrest him are giving oxygen to his supporters and reviving support for his troubled party.

Yoon, who was suspended from his duties and wanted for possible sedition after a brief martial law was imposed on Dec. 3, has been confined to his hilltop residence in Seoul for weeks, guarded by a small army of personal security personnel.

A National Barometer Survey released on Thursday showed 59% wanted him arrested, something investigators are determined to do, despite failing to do so after his widely publicized six-hour standoff with security forces last week is that Yun’s arrest is excessive.

A similar split fell in favor of the Constitutional Court, which is currently considering lawmakers’ decision to impeach Yun, to remove him permanently.

Analysts say Yun’s prospects for a return to office are unclear, but the break has emboldened his supporters, many of whom braved sub-zero temperatures to gather outside his residence on Thursday morning.

In the weeks since Yun’s impeachment, support for his ruling People’s Power Party (PPP) has also recovered, which some analysts say shows the conservatives are uniting to fight a possible presidential election later this year.

YOUN SUPPORTERS REPEAT ATTEMPTED ARRESTS

“The attempt to arrest Yoon seems to have re-energized the conservatives,” said Mason Ritchie, a professor at Seoul’s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

He said the resurgence is coming from both die-hard supporters of Yoon, who support his reasons for declaring martial law, including unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud, and those who are less supportive of Yoon but concerned about the prospects of Lee Jae-myun, a liberal leader. the main opposition party, becoming the president.

“If the impeachment attempt were successful, these conservatives would lose a second time, and that momentum would probably be wiped out quickly. The more impeachment attempts, the more energized conservatives would feel,” Richey said.

A Realmeter poll released on Monday showed the PPP’s approval rating at 34.4%, the highest for three weeks in a row. , collected 45.2%.

Most pollsters in South Korea have stopped tracking Yoon’s approval ratings since he was impeached by parliament, although some fringe polls have shown a surge in his personal support in recent days.

As he faces the prospect of another arrest attempt, his lawyers remain defiant, arguing that anti-corruption officials seeking to arrest him do not have the authority to investigate him for rebellion, despite the court ruling.

YUN’S LAWYERS SAY HE WILL ACCEPT THE DECISION OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT.

Lawyers, however, told reporters on Thursday that the Constitutional Court’s decision on Yun’s political future will be accepted. Decisions by the Supreme Court, one of the country’s two highest courts, cannot be appealed.

“The president is still standing firm. He said he doesn’t want people to suffer and government officials to suffer, but he cannot accept illegal investigations,” said lawyer Seok Dong-hyun, a confidant of Yoon, outside his residence. supporters on Wednesday.

Jeremy Chan, a senior analyst covering Northeast Asia at the Eurasia Group, a US-based political risk consultancy, said further attempts to arrest Yun would likely only “enhance” support for him and his party.

Yun’s supporters are also inspired by US President-elect Donald Trump, who has previously made unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud and faced numerous legal problems, but made a stunning comeback in last year’s election.

Some of Yun’s supporters have adopted the slogan “Stop the theft,” which has been popularized by Trump supporters to bolster allegations of fraud against the election watchdog. Trump has not directly commented on Yun’s situation.

Lee Joon Han, a political science professor at Incheon National University, said conservative voters were more likely to be driven by the memory of the conservatives’ heavy election defeat after the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye in 2017.