Yoon Suk Yeol Is Charged With Insurrection

South Korea's prosecutors have indicted impeached Yoon Suk Yeol (right) on charges of leading an insurrection with his short-lived imposition of martial law on December 03.

In a statement on Sunday, the prosecutors said they “indicted Yoon Suk Yeol with detention on charges of being the ringleader of an insurrection”.

“After a comprehensive review of evidence obtained during investigations, the [prosecutors] concluded that it was only appropriate to indict the defendant”, the statement announced. 

Earlier on the same day, Democratic Party spokesperson Han Min-soo told a news conference: “The punishment of the ringleader of insurrection now begins finally”. 

Insurrection is one of the few criminal charges from which a South Korean president does not have immunity. It is punishable by life imprisonment or death, although South Korea has not executed anyone in decades. 

Yoon's ill-fated attempt to impose military rule plunged the country into an unprecedented political crisis and he becomes the first sitting president in South Korean history to be charged with a crime. The indictment comes after a court in Seoul rejected a request to extend Yoon's detention on Saturday, which meant prosecutors had to make a decision on whether to charge or release him before Monday. 

Separately, the Constitutional Court have begun deliberations on whether to formally dismiss Yoon as president or reinstate him. 

The impeached president has largely refused to co-operate with the criminal investigation over the martial law declaration. Yoon is set to stand trial along with his former defence minister and senior military commanders, who are accused of helping him plan and carry out the attempt to seize total power.

On Saturday, MAGA President Donald Trump, in a speech in Las Vegas, Nevada in the United States announced: “We might be an enlarged country pretty soon”. 

In recent weeks, he has declared grandiose ambitions to expand US territory and showed earnest interest in annexing Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal. And not forgetting to mention that Trump too had vowed to send astronauts to Mars and plant the American flag there. 

To demonstrate his seriousness, he refused to rule out the use of military force against Greenland and Panama, saying the US needs both for “economic security”. As for Canada, he would only use “economic force”, he asserted.

These are the low-hanging fruits for Trump. As for Russia and/or China, neither is within reach to be plucked. It definitely won't be easy. Deep down inside, he knows it.