The South Korean Self-Coup of 2024

As of August of 2025, the impeached former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife Kim Keon Hee are simultaneously in jail. I thought now would be a good time to share the link to the August 13, 2025 AP News article about it at https://apnews.com/article/south-korea-yoon-suk-yeol-kim-keon-hee-arrest-90ce614e2c1c1b2740645f5edb89e9ae. One cultural detail to note is that Korean names are written family names first, followed by given names. Family names are usually one syllable long, and given names are usually two syllables long. Also, my presentation slides and video recording is at the beginning section of https://cityuntangled.com/politics/.

From the AP News article:

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The wife of South Korea’s jailed former President Yoon Suk Yeol has been arrested as investigators seek to charge her over various suspected crimes, including bribery, stock manipulation and meddling in the selection of a candidate.

And:

While Yoon’s self-inflicted downfall extended a decades-long run of South Korean presidencies ending badly, he and Kim are the first former presidential couple to be jailed simultaneously over criminal allegations.

The AP News article has a good summary of what led to Yoon’s impeachment. My summary is that he got impeached over the attempted self-coup on December 3, 2024 via unconstitutional martial law. The core of the self-coup is very simple, in my opinion. It is the aftermath that is very complex and generated a huge amount of writing and videos. A summary of December 3, 2024 in a list format:

1. Article 77 of the South Korean constitution allows the president to declare martial law under certain circumstances and following proper procedure.
2. The constitution also gives the legislators, members of the National Assembly, the power to vote down the martial law.
3. The president tried to prevent the legislators from exercising their power by declaring surprise martial law around 10:27pm KST and sending soldiers to prevent legislators from entering the legislative building.
4. The legislators still managed to enter the building and vote down the martial law due to a combination of citizens circling the building to prevent soldiers from entering and the soldiers themselves passively obeying the president’s order.

Messy details that are covered in my presentation slides in various parts are (https://cityuntangled.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/south-korean-coup-of-2024-presentation-2025-07-09.pdf):

1. Uncovering possible plans to arrest and torture political opponents.
2. Some commanders who refused to follow what they deduced was an unconstitutional order.
3. The president’s own party trying to defend the president’s actions.
4. Investigators trying to figure out who were exactly behind the the planning and implementation.
5. The investigation and trial that led to the permanent impeachment on April 4, 2025. South Korean impeachment procedure for presidents has two steps. The legislative branch initiates temporary impeachment with a super-majority vote. The judicial branch, in this case, the Constitutional Court, has 180 days to finalize the impeachment.
6. Arrest of the president on January 15, 2025. The Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO) successfully arrested the president for insurrection after the first failed attempt on January 3. During the first arrest attempt, the president managed to block the arrest by surrounding the presidential compound with the Presidential Security Service and a unit of the military, likely from a sympathetic commander (!). The CIO did something clever for the second attempt. They threatened to take away the pensions of security guards who assist the president with resisting arrest. The compound opened up like Moses parting the Sea of Reeds in the Jewish and Christian Book of Exodus.

In many cases, coups are successful only with the cooperation of soldiers on the ground. That means coups would fail if soldiers do not cooperate. If you have as a whole an educated and principled military that puts the law above individuals and vows not to harm citizens, individuals who attempt to gain power through unlawful means would likely not succeed.