Late last week in South Korea, former president Yoon Suk Yeol, was officially impeached and removed from office. His impeachment follows an insurrectionist attempt earlier this year as he attempted to exert martial law to counteract the election results from last year which would have put his opposition into power.
However, despite the country’s supreme court ruling against Yeol, his supporters haven’t given up on him yet. Ironically, the charge, along with his propaganda of using martial law action as a means to save democracy, has turned him into a martyr above all else. The popular social media app YouTube has been a political warzone as both left and right influencers share clips and claims supporting or denouncing Yeol in various means.
The main arguments in support of his actions were that it was used to uphold and defend Korean democracy, that the election was stolen or rigged against him, and that the left opposition is either close with or is affiliated with the Chinese communist party and North Korea. All of this has been cultivated with a mass following of Yeol and a base of followers willing to believe him and his actions above all others. In January when he was arrested after the insurrection, a crowd of his supporters charged and stormed a courthouse in Seoul, harming multiple police and security personnel there. Along with that a local man would set himself on fire near the Seoul City Hall with multiple leaflets spreading pro-Yeoul propaganda scattered around him.
Some on Yeol’s side still claim that the left opposition did this to themselves due to their actions of going after Yeol and his cabinet, firing or replacing who they could. They claim that the power of being in the majority has gone to their heads and led them to overturn the democratic processes. Which in turn makes whatever Yeol does to be in support of democracy and in a good light, regardless of how dangerous it is.
His support isn’t rock solid and even people in his own party have begun to switch sides and oppose him, claiming to see that this has gone too far and that it isn’t about the party anymore. People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker Cho Kyoung-tae went so far as to call out the irrational fanaticism with Yeoul, asking why people are talking like he is a king on BBC. There are also left leaning political Youtubers who are continuously posting facts and videos going against the criminal.
Ultimately, Yeol, as of Friday, will serve out his sentence properly and fully, regardless of what his supporters may want.
