Putting Yoon Suk Yeol on trial won't unify South Korea |
Think of the death penalty and North Korea’s executions of individuals convicted of so-called ‘anti-state crimes’ may spring to mind. The resilient democracy of South Korea, however, probably would not. Nevertheless, this week has seen South Korean prosecutors call for the country’s former president, Yoon Suk Yeol, to be handed the most extreme of all punishments for his notorious declaration of martial law on 3 December 2024.
At the first of his four trials this morning, the former president was handed a five-year prison sentence for having ‘plunged the country into political crisis’. But as his left-wing successor, Lee Jae-myung, reaches his six-month anniversary in office, putting Yoon on trial will offer little catharsis for South Korea’s domestic polarisations – which is not going anywhere anytime soon.
Yoon’s short-lived pronouncement of martial law that December evening will forever go down in the history books. Unlike many of its Western counterparts, South Korea is a highly youthful democracy. Prior to its democratic transition in 1987, martial law was anything but rare. This was a time when the suppression of civil liberties saw the country undergo exponential economic growth, allowing it to evolve from its post-Korean war rags to its subsequent riches. 2024, however, was different. By then........