South Korea’s Leftist New President Presses Cases Against His Predecessor and Others on the Right

SEOUL — The campaign of revenge against South Korea’s ousted president, Yoon Suk-yeol, is escalating with the national assembly’s rapid passage of bills calling for investigations of his abortive attempt at imposing martial law last December and of his wife for involvement in what was known as “Diorgate.”Although Mr. Yoon is already on trial in a district court after being charged with “insurrection,” South Korea’s newly elected president, Lee Jae-myung, clearly wants to pillory his most dangerous opponent with claims that will convince the public of the full extent of his alleged crimes. While it’s unlikely the court would impose the maximum sentence — the death penalty — a life sentence is possible for the man whom the ruling Democratic Party, or Minju, accuses of staging a “coup” against the government.The bill sailed through the 300-seat assembly by a vote of 194 to 3, almost the same number that Mr. Lee persuaded to vote against Mr. Yoon’s martial law decree three hours after he issued it. The assembly then voted to impeach him. The bill calls for investigation of 11 different charges against Mr. Yoon, the most serious of which, beside insurrection, is “mutiny.”Almost all members of Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party boycotted the vote — a sign of the deep hostility between right and left that’s sure to crystallize in the trials not only of Mr. Yoon but also of his former defense minister and about 20 others. Mr. Yoon remains free after being held for 52 days, but the special prosecutor, to be appointed by Mr. Lee, is expected to ask the court to put him behind bars again, like all the others facing charges.Mr. Lee’s determination to inflict severe punishment on Mr. Yoon shows the depth of hostility between left and right in a society in which the divisions only increased in the 60 days of campaigning that culminated in Mr. Lee’s decisive victory in Tuesday’s “snap election.” He defeated the candidate of Mr. Lee’s People Power Party, Kim Moon-soo, a former labor minister.In his inaugural address, Mr. Lee said it was “time to build bridges of coexistence, reconciliation, and solidarity over the hatred and confrontation that have divided us,” to “let hope blossom over deep and painful wounds,” but he is clearly behind the raft of charges against Mr. Yoon and his confederates. Mr. Lee, in the national assembly before his election as president, pushed through two similar bills. An acting president who was filling in for Mr. Yoon after his impeachment, Choi Sang-mok, vetoed them.The assembly also passed two other bills that Mr. Yoon had vetoed well before his impeachment.One of them calls for the special prosecutor to reopen the investigation into “Diorgate” — the claim that Mr. Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon-hee, accepted a Christian Dior handbag as a bribe. Mr. Yoon as president vetoed a similar bill after a district court had dropped the charge last August for lack of evidence. The same bill also calls for investigating alleged stock manipulation by Mr. Yoon’s wife and her mother. Mr. Yoon had vetoed that one too.The assembly also wants a special prosecutor to investigate claims of Mr. Yoon’s role in an investigation into the death of a young marine who drowned two years ago while on a rescue mission with other marines in a flooded region. Mr. Yoon is said to have conspired with marine commanders to cover up what happened. The case was in limbo until Mr. Yoon’s opponents decided to revive it now that he’s no longer president.Not unexpectedly, Mr. Yoon’s friends and allies will be doing all they can to cover for him. The Korea Times reported that Mr. Lee’s aides discovered the presidential office almost bare of anything that might be used as evidence. “Desks sat empty, printers were gone, there was no internet connectivity and security systems were shut down,” the paper reported. “No cabinet documents or briefing materials were left behind for the incoming administration.”Officials surveying the premises described it as “a war zone after a retreat” and “a crime scene,” the paper quoted them as saying. “It feels like a tomb,” one of them reportedly said. “There’s no printer, no internet, not even a pen.”______________Correction: Trials of Mr. Yoon, his former defense minister, and others are a sign of hostility in South Korea between left and right. An earlier version misstated some of the defendants.

South Korea’s Leftist New President Presses Cases Against His Predecessor and Others on the Right

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