How South Korea’s president sealed his own downfall

Yoon Suk Yeol’s party offered him the chance of a dignified exit but he chose to double down on his martial law gambit

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For Yoon Suk Yeol, last week’s short-lived martial law declaration wasn’t just a catastrophic miscalculation – it was the culmination of a presidency that had been troubled from the start.

When he narrowly won the election in March 2022, Yoon was already a divisive figure. The former prosecutor turned politician positioned himself as an arch-conservative, winning support particularly from young male voters by promising to abolish the ministry for gender equality, claiming South Korean women did not face systemic discrimination.