Yoon’s supporters look west to ‘make Korea great again’

The ardent backers of arrested president Yoon Suk-yeol are using the tactics and iconography of Donald Trump’s followers with claims that democracy itself is at stake

What is striking is the extent to which Yoon’s supporters borrow the slogans and iconography of Donald Trump’s America. Picture: Jean Chung/The Times

He chanted no slogans and left no note but the man who went up in flames on Wednesday night spoke clearly about the state of South Korean politics.

He set himself on fire the day after the country’s president, Yoon Suk-yeol, was arrested for insurrection and brought for questioning to the town of Gwacheon, south of Seoul.

The 59-year-old appeared in a park near a group of Yoon supporters who were mounting a protest. According to local reports, four butane gas canisters were strapped to his body. At around 8pm, he ignited them.

Firefighters were quickly on the scene and he was taken unconscious to hospital, where was treated for third-degree burns.

He had tried to set himself alight a few hours earlier, close to Yoon’s home, but police prevented him. He told them that he wanted to burn as a protest against the former president’s arrest.

Yoon will spend this weekend in a 10ft-square (9.3sq m) cell in a detention centre south of central Seoul. On Friday, investigators asked a court to extend his initial two days of detention to up to 20 days, after which he is likely to face criminal charges of insurrection for his abortive effort on December 3 to declare martial law, shut down parliament and arrest his opponents.

President Yoon Suk-yeol was arrested on suspicion of insurrection after a failed attempt last month to impose martial law. Picture: South Korean Presidential Office/AFP/Getty Images

On top of this, he faces an impeachment trial that could strip him of the presidency. The National Assembly is moving to appoint a separate special counsel to investigate Yoon, who faces years in prison and, in theory if not in practice, the death penalty for treason.

But if Yoon’s arrest marks the end of a chapter, the saga is still far from over. As the self-immolation indicates, there are plenty of South Koreans who support the president and are prepared to go to extreme lengths to show it.

“This is a cause that is more than worth dying for,” says Park Jung-sup, a leader of the protest outside the government offices in Gwacheon, close to where the unidentified man set himself on fire.

“He sacrificed his life so people can know what’s happening to the president. It is a strong and powerful message, an expression of anger.”

Supporters of Yoon chanted slogans during a protest near Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials in Gwacheon. Picture: Jean Chung/The Times

There is no doubt that most South Koreans were appalled by Yoon’s botched effort to suspend democracy, but a growing minority continue to support him and demand his release.

The drama of Yoon’s arrest – first blocked by the presidential guard, then eventually enforced by a team of 1200 officers – has been accompanied by protests from a loose alliance of conservative anti-communists, right-wing Christians and conspiracy theorists.

The pro-Yoon case depends on the claim that last year’s parliamentary election, in which he lost control of the National Assembly to the left-leaning Democratic Party, was stolen from him by election fraud. No independent authority supports this claim.

Yoon had been elected as president the year before by a narrow majority and polls consistently suggested that he was heading for defeat.

But loss of control over parliament left him struggling to pass legislation and budgets, and fighting off determined and aggressive efforts to investigate his wife, the first lady, Kim Keon-hee, for corruption. This is the justification for the attempt at declaring martial law – that it prevented South Korea from being torn asunder by the politicking of leftists.

Yoon’s supporters speak of Chinese agents infiltrating the election commission and supporting anti-Yoon demonstrations. There is no credible evidence of this.

Many Yoon supporters wear Make America Great Again caps, and the Stars and Stripes is as much in evidence as the South Korean flag. Picture: Jean Chung/The Times

Han Myung Seok wears a cap saying Make Korea Free Again and Oh Suwan with one saying Make America Great Again at a protest this week to support the impeached president of South Korea Yoon Suk-yeol. Picture: Jean Chung/The Times

Flowers were laid on the ground near where a man in his sixties was seriously injured after self-immolating. Picture: Jean Chung/The Times

What is striking is the extent to which Yoon’s supporters borrow the slogans and iconography of Donald Trump’s America. Many wear MAGA caps, and the Stars and Stripes is as much in evidence as the South Korean flag.

As well as placards in Korean denouncing the Democratic Party and its leader, Lee Jae-myung, there is the Trumpist slogan “stop the steal”. “When those Trump people broke into Congress [in January 2021], I thought they were crazy,” says Minah Lee, a dentist who travelled from Busan to protest in Gwacheon. “But then our election got stolen and I understood how they felt.”

The day after Yoon’s martial law declaration, 75 per cent of South Koreans supported his impeachment; in a Gallup Korea poll released Friday the figure was 57 per cent.

Accounts by his supporters of Yoon’s final moments before he was arrested suggest that he takes heart from the shift away from his opponents.

Before submitting himself to arrest, he made sandwiches for his lawyers and spent 10 minutes saying goodbye to his pet dog, Tori. “People are now seeing how serious the situation is,” he told his loyalists before he was led away. “This when it begins.”

The Times