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South Korean ex president Yoon Suk Yeol jailed for life for leading insurrection

theguardian.com

71–80 of 175 posts

Re: South Korean ex president Yoon Suk Yeol jailed for life for leading insurrection

#71
He'll be pardoned and released by the next election cycle, remember 2 presidents were even sentenced to death at one point.

I'm reading the comments here and surprised by the lack of depth of assessing Korea's history of prosecuting its presidents and most of you are just regurgitating what's reported in mainstream news that is echoed by Korean mainstream news which cannot give you a neutral impartial view on the situation.

Two Korean presidents were sentenced to death and were pardoned in the 90s. another two Korean presidents were jailed for decades and were released after a few years. All of this is just a quick pandering to voters for whichever side gets hold and I am willing to wager that the current and last President will also see the insides of a jail cell.

I point that democracies like American politics even when it gets ugly to the point do not engage in such tit for tat against the President to the point of sending them to jail, for obvious reasons.

Re: South Korean ex president Yoon Suk Yeol jailed for life for leading insurrection

#73
>National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik announced he would convene a plenary session immediately to revoke the martial law order and called for all lawmakers to gather at the National Assembly.[11] All main parties, including the ruling People Power Party, opposed Yoon's martial law declaration.

Obviously this guy went off his rocker. His own party had to step in and oppose him.

I do wonder, it doesnt seem like he was trying to install himself as dictator; it seems to me like he may have just had a mental health break. Being a major world leader has to be immense stress.

We really just need to get humans out of the loop. Direct democracy where you vote on everything, or assign your vote to a trusted representative.

Re: South Korean ex president Yoon Suk Yeol jailed for life for leading insurrection

#74
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also illustrates what a real insurrection attempt looks like. [1] He declared martial law, suspended and prevented their Congress equivalent from meeting (and directed the military to enforce such), ordered the immediate arrest of numerous high level politicians with a goal of arresting hundreds, issued a declaration that all media and publications had to be approved before publication, ordered the power+water for…

I’m not suggesting things are as bad as a full on insurrection. But it’s not a great leap of imagination to compare the two either. > He declared martial law Trump has sent federal troops into states that voted against him. He’s also frequently talked about “the enemy from within” to describe American citizens. And then there’s ICE… > suspended and prevented their Congress equivalent from meeting Trump has shut down…

The overreach of executive powers is very concerning, but those are more long term attempts to influence the public and policy makers through shady tactics.

The insurrection everyone is referring to is definitely Jan 6th, which it is laughable to compare to an actual insurrection attempt. A few thousand unarmed people waving signs and wearing costumes break into government buildings and take selfies? What would the next steps be that would end in them overthrowing elected leaders?

Re: South Korean ex president Yoon Suk Yeol jailed for life for leading insurrection

#75

Also the King stepping aside as the commoners come to for his brother. Lots of recent examples demonstrating that none of these unprecedented moments are untouchable if you actually are a people who believe in the rule of law.

It's striking that the specific offense, misconduct in a public office, is exactly what the supreme court recently decided a US president can never commit. In at least one concrete way our elected leaders are less accountable than their royalty.

Re: South Korean ex president Yoon Suk Yeol jailed for life for leading insurrection

#76
post #31

Last sentence: “Every South Korean president who has served a prison sentence has ultimately been pardoned.”

For context, Yoon is the 5th south korean president to serve a prison sentence; and a 6th committed suicide while under investigation, which is 42% of all korean presidents.

Re: South Korean ex president Yoon Suk Yeol jailed for life for leading insurrection

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also illustrates what a real insurrection attempt looks like. [1] He declared martial law, suspended and prevented their Congress equivalent from meeting (and directed the military to enforce such), ordered the immediate arrest of numerous high level politicians with a goal of arresting hundreds, issued a declaration that all media and publications had to be approved before publication, ordered the power+water for…

[flagged]

A few tweets! Lololololololololololololololol

Re: South Korean ex president Yoon Suk Yeol jailed for life for leading insurrection

#78
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also illustrates what a real insurrection attempt looks like. [1] He declared martial law, suspended and prevented their Congress equivalent from meeting (and directed the military to enforce such), ordered the immediate arrest of numerous high level politicians with a goal of arresting hundreds, issued a declaration that all media and publications had to be approved before publication, ordered the power+water for…

Just to be clear, ordering a violent mob thousands strong to march on the capitol and "fight like hell" to interfere with the peaceful transition of power is also what a real insurrection attempt looks like.

Innocent until proven guilty.

Re: South Korean ex president Yoon Suk Yeol jailed for life for leading insurrection

#79

He'll be pardoned and released by the next election cycle, remember 2 presidents were even sentenced to death at one point. I'm reading the comments here and surprised by the lack of depth of assessing Korea's history of prosecuting its presidents and most of you are just regurgitating what's reported in mainstream news that is echoed by Korean mainstream news which cannot give you a neutral impartial view on the sit…

Yeah, I don't understand the comments praising Korea for this. A tradition of prosecuting political opponents and then pardoning all of them is a mockery of the rule of law, regardless of what they actually did.

Re: South Korean ex president Yoon Suk Yeol jailed for life for leading insurrection

#80
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not suggesting things are as bad as a full on insurrection. But it’s not a great leap of imagination to compare the two either. > He declared martial law Trump has sent federal troops into states that voted against him. He’s also frequently talked about “the enemy from within” to describe American citizens. And then there’s ICE… > suspended and prevented their Congress equivalent from meeting Trump has shut down…

The overreach of executive powers is very concerning, but those are more long term attempts to influence the public and policy makers through shady tactics. The insurrection everyone is referring to is definitely Jan 6th, which it is laughable to compare to an actual insurrection attempt. A few thousand unarmed people waving signs and wearing costumes break into government buildings and take selfies? What would the n…

I think the thing that puts J6 in the "definitely an insurrection attempt" category is the fact that it happened while Congress was exercising its duty to formalize the electoral college vote. We don't have to reach for statistics about how many were armed or wearing costumes (a fact that seems immaterial in any case); the question is sufficiently answered by what they were attempting to stop.
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