World News
Who is President Yoon Suk Yeol? What to know about the South Korea president
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will lift the martial law order after just a few hours... a look at his rise to the country’s highest office.
The President of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, who has been in power since 2022, has declared martial law and weakened the power of the legislative branch of the government. Yoon Suk Yeol’s party, the right-wing People Power Party, does not have a majority in the National Assembly. A few hours after imposing the emergency legal statute, the president has said he will suspend the order.
In the shocking video wherein martial law was declared, the South Korean leader said that the move was needed “to safeguard a liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and to eliminate anti-state elements.” The White House has said President Biden and State Department leaders have been briefed. The US Ambassador to South Korea, Ambassador Philip Goldberg, posted on X a few hours ago that “the situation is fluid” and encouraged US citizens to “monitor local news sources and updates as the situation progresses.”
Rise to power in South Korea
Yoon Suk Yeol, born in 1960, was a prosecutor before entering politics. He and his party won the presidency in 2022 by a very narrow margin, campaigning on a conservative platform that adopted a more confrontational approach toward North Korea than previous administrations. In the years leading up to his election, he faced allegations of unethical practices, although a case brought against him in 2020 was subsequently withdrawn.
As president, Yoon has encountered significant public opposition, particularly from younger generations. Last year, he proposed increasing the maximum working week in the country from 52 to 69 hours. However, the government ultimately abandoned the proposal after facing severe backlash and protests.
He was born in Seoul before the country transitioned to democracy and was able to avoid mandatory conscription because of his disorder of the eye, anisometropia.
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