Amid 2nd Impeachment, A Look At Troubled History Of South Korean Presidents

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is going through a second impeachment vote on Saturday after his short-lived declaration of martial regulation final week.

He’s removed from the primary South Korean president to see his rule descend into acrimony and scandal.  

Here’s a have a look at the downfalls of earlier South Korean leaders.

2016: Park impeached, jailed

In December 2016, Park Geun-hye, president since 2013, was impeached by Parliament in a call confirmed in March 2017 by the Constitutional Courtroom, resulting in her indictment and imprisonment. 

The daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee, she was the primary girl president of South Korea and had offered herself as incorruptible. 

However she was accused of receiving or requesting tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from conglomerates, together with Samsung.

Further accusations included sharing categorised paperwork, placing artists crucial of her insurance policies on a “blacklist”, and dismissing officers who opposed her.

Park was sentenced in 2021 to twenty years in jail and slapped with heavy fines.

However on the finish of that yr, she was pardoned by her successor, Moon Jae-in. 

Yoon, the present president, was a Seoul prosecutor on the time and performed a key function in her dismissal and subsequent incarceration.

Lee Myung-bak: 15 years in jail

In energy from 2008 to 2013, Park’s conservative predecessor Lee Myung-bak was sentenced in October 2018 to fifteen years in jail for corruption.

Most notably, he was discovered responsible of taking bribes from Samsung in alternate for favours to the conglomerate’s then chairman, Lee Kun-hee, who had been convicted of tax evasion.

The previous chief was pardoned by President Yoon in December 2022.

Roh Moo-hyun: Suicide

President from 2003 to 2008 and a powerful supporter of rapprochement with North Korea, liberal Roh Moo-hyun killed himself by leaping from a cliff in Might 2009.

He had discovered himself the goal of an investigation into the fee by a rich shoe producer of 1 million {dollars} to his spouse and 5 million to the husband of one among his nieces.

1987: Autocrat Chun retires

Navy strongman Chun Doo-hwan, often known as the “Butcher of Gwangju” for ordering his troops to place down an rebellion towards his rule within the southwestern metropolis, agreed to step down in 1987 within the face of mass demonstrations.

He handed over energy to his protege Roh Tae-woo.

Roh and Chun had been shut for many years, first assembly as classmates at army academy in the course of the Korean Struggle.

In 1996, each males have been convicted of treason over the 1979 coup that introduced Chun to energy, the 1980 Gwangju rebellion, corruption, and different offences.

Roh was sentenced to 22.5 years in jail, which was decreased to 17 years, whereas Chun was condemned to dying, a sentence commuted to life in jail. 

They have been later granted amnesty in 1998 having spent simply two years behind bars.

1979: Dictator Park assassinated

Park Chung-hee was assassinated in October 1979 by his personal spy chief throughout a non-public dinner.

The occasions of that evening have been lengthy a topic of heated debate in South Korea, significantly over whether or not the homicide was premeditated.

Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, then military generals, took benefit of the political confusion to stage a coup in December 1979.

1961: Yun overthrown in a coup

President Yun Po-sun was overthrown in 1961 in a coup led by military officer Park Chung-hee.

Park saved Yun in his submit however successfully took management of the federal government, then changed him after successful an election in 1963. 

1960: Exile of first president

South Korea’s first president, Syngman Rhee, elected in 1948, was pressured to resign by a well-liked student-led rebellion in 1960, after making an attempt to increase his time period via rigged elections. 

Rhee was pressured into exile in Hawaii, the place he died in 1965.

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