Yoon Suk Yeol

Biography

Yoon Suk Yeol was born in Seoul in 1960 and studied law at Seoul National University. After passing the bar in 1991 he joined the prosecution service, where he built a reputation in corruption cases, including the 2013 inquiry into the National Intelligence Service's interference in the 2012 election. As chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office from 2017, he oversaw the indictment of former presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye.

President Moon Jae-in made him Prosecutor General in 2019, but his investigations of Moon's allies, notably Justice Minister Cho Kuk, led to open conflict with the government, and he resigned in March 2021. He then joined the conservative People Power Party, won its nomination, and narrowly defeated Lee Jae Myung in the March 2022 presidential election.

As president from May 2022, Yoon moved closer to the United States and Japan and took a hard line on North Korea, while his approval ratings stayed low. On 3 December 2024 he declared martial law, which the National Assembly overturned within hours. He was impeached on 14 December, arrested in January 2025 and removed from office by the Constitutional Court on 4 April 2025. In February 2026 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for leading an insurrection.