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Yoon Suk Yeol
Yoon Suk Yeol (Korean: 윤석열, pronounced [jun sʰʌŋnjʌɭ]; born 18 December 1960) is a South Korean politician and former prosecutor who served as the 13th president of South Korea from 2022 until his removal from office in 2025. A member of the People Power Party during his presidency, he was the shortest-serving directly elected president in the country's democratic history since 1987. Yoon previously served as the prosecutor general of South Korea from 2019 to 2021.
Born in Seoul, Yoon received his bachelor's and master's degrees in law from Seoul National University. In his capacity as chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office, he played a key role in convicting former presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak for abuse of power. In 2019, President Moon Jae-in appointed Yoon as Prosecutor General of South Korea. Under Yoon's leadership, the Supreme Prosecutor's Office conducted embattled investigations into Cho Kuk, an influential figure in the Moon administration, that led to Cho's resignation as Minister of Justice. Yoon's clashes with the Moon administration prior to his resignation as prosecutor general in 2021 led to his rise as a potential presidential candidate among conservative voters.
On 29 June 2021, Yoon announced his candidacy in the 2022 presidential election. He joined the People Power Party (PPP) in July and won its nomination in November. Considered a conservative politician, Yoon ran on a platform promising economic deregulation, opposing feminism and measures such as abolishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. He narrowly defeated Democratic Party nominee Lee Jae Myung by less than a percentage point on 9 March 2022 and assumed office as president on 10 May, becoming the first elected president to be born after the end to fighting in the Korean War.
During his presidency, Yoon pursued friendlier relations with Japan and the United States, and has been described as hawkish toward North Korea. His handling of the Seoul Halloween crowd crush in 2022 and the medical crisis has attracted criticism. In the 2024 parliamentary midterm elections, Yoon's party suffered a defeat, which weakened his political power. Under Yoon's tenure, South Korea underwent democratic backsliding and a shift towards authoritarianism. He received mostly low approval ratings as president and had been described as a lame duck. On 3 December 2024, Yoon declared martial law, the first time it had been declared in South Korea since the military dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan in 1980. He accused members of the National Assembly of supporting North Korea, but lifted martial law after the Assembly passed an emergency motion nullifying the declaration a few hours later.
Amid widespread criticism and mass protests, an impeachment motion was introduced against Yoon the next day, though it fell short of the 200 votes needed to pass. Yoon was successfully impeached and suspended from his presidential powers in a second vote ten days later. Yoon subsequently became the first sitting president in South Korean history to face an arrest warrant and, in January 2025, the first to be arrested and incarcerated. On 4 April, the Constitutional Court unanimously upheld Yoon's impeachment by the National Assembly, officially terminating his presidency. Yoon announced his departure from the PPP in May. Yoon is currently being investigated for heading an insurrection, and may face either life imprisonment or the death penalty if convicted. In July 2025, Yoon was again detained and indicted on additional criminal charges, and remains in custody at this time.
Yoon was born in Bomun-dong, Seongbuk District, Seoul, in 1960, and raised in Yeonhui-dong, Seodaemun District. His father, Yoon Ki Joong, was born in Nonsan, and was a professor emeritus of economics at Yonsei University and a full member of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Korea. His mother, Choi Seong-ja, was born in Gangneung, and was a lecturer at Ewha Womans University before leaving the position after getting married.
Yoon attended Daegwang Elementary School and Joongrang Middle School, transferring to Chungam Middle School after finishing eighth grade. After graduating from Chungam High School in 1979, he studied law at Seoul National University where he earned a Bachelor of Laws in 1983 and a Master of Laws in 1988. Shortly after the Gwangju Uprising, Yoon and his colleagues held a mock trial where he acted as a prosecutor, demanding life imprisonment for President Chun Doo-hwan. Fearing imprisonment for his role in the mock trial, Yoon fled to Gangwon Province.
Yoon was exempted in 1982 from national service due to anisometropia (a type of eyesight defect). Yoon later stated that he was unable to obtain a driver's license because of the condition. After passing the first part of the bar exam in his fourth year of university, Yoon continued to attempt the second part over the next nine years. He eventually passed the bar in 1991, placing him in the same graduating class as Democratic Party Assemblyman and Minister of Justice Park Beom-kye.
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Yoon Suk Yeol
Yoon Suk Yeol (Korean: 윤석열, pronounced [jun sʰʌŋnjʌɭ]; born 18 December 1960) is a South Korean politician and former prosecutor who served as the 13th president of South Korea from 2022 until his removal from office in 2025. A member of the People Power Party during his presidency, he was the shortest-serving directly elected president in the country's democratic history since 1987. Yoon previously served as the prosecutor general of South Korea from 2019 to 2021.
Born in Seoul, Yoon received his bachelor's and master's degrees in law from Seoul National University. In his capacity as chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office, he played a key role in convicting former presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak for abuse of power. In 2019, President Moon Jae-in appointed Yoon as Prosecutor General of South Korea. Under Yoon's leadership, the Supreme Prosecutor's Office conducted embattled investigations into Cho Kuk, an influential figure in the Moon administration, that led to Cho's resignation as Minister of Justice. Yoon's clashes with the Moon administration prior to his resignation as prosecutor general in 2021 led to his rise as a potential presidential candidate among conservative voters.
On 29 June 2021, Yoon announced his candidacy in the 2022 presidential election. He joined the People Power Party (PPP) in July and won its nomination in November. Considered a conservative politician, Yoon ran on a platform promising economic deregulation, opposing feminism and measures such as abolishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. He narrowly defeated Democratic Party nominee Lee Jae Myung by less than a percentage point on 9 March 2022 and assumed office as president on 10 May, becoming the first elected president to be born after the end to fighting in the Korean War.
During his presidency, Yoon pursued friendlier relations with Japan and the United States, and has been described as hawkish toward North Korea. His handling of the Seoul Halloween crowd crush in 2022 and the medical crisis has attracted criticism. In the 2024 parliamentary midterm elections, Yoon's party suffered a defeat, which weakened his political power. Under Yoon's tenure, South Korea underwent democratic backsliding and a shift towards authoritarianism. He received mostly low approval ratings as president and had been described as a lame duck. On 3 December 2024, Yoon declared martial law, the first time it had been declared in South Korea since the military dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan in 1980. He accused members of the National Assembly of supporting North Korea, but lifted martial law after the Assembly passed an emergency motion nullifying the declaration a few hours later.
Amid widespread criticism and mass protests, an impeachment motion was introduced against Yoon the next day, though it fell short of the 200 votes needed to pass. Yoon was successfully impeached and suspended from his presidential powers in a second vote ten days later. Yoon subsequently became the first sitting president in South Korean history to face an arrest warrant and, in January 2025, the first to be arrested and incarcerated. On 4 April, the Constitutional Court unanimously upheld Yoon's impeachment by the National Assembly, officially terminating his presidency. Yoon announced his departure from the PPP in May. Yoon is currently being investigated for heading an insurrection, and may face either life imprisonment or the death penalty if convicted. In July 2025, Yoon was again detained and indicted on additional criminal charges, and remains in custody at this time.
Yoon was born in Bomun-dong, Seongbuk District, Seoul, in 1960, and raised in Yeonhui-dong, Seodaemun District. His father, Yoon Ki Joong, was born in Nonsan, and was a professor emeritus of economics at Yonsei University and a full member of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Korea. His mother, Choi Seong-ja, was born in Gangneung, and was a lecturer at Ewha Womans University before leaving the position after getting married.
Yoon attended Daegwang Elementary School and Joongrang Middle School, transferring to Chungam Middle School after finishing eighth grade. After graduating from Chungam High School in 1979, he studied law at Seoul National University where he earned a Bachelor of Laws in 1983 and a Master of Laws in 1988. Shortly after the Gwangju Uprising, Yoon and his colleagues held a mock trial where he acted as a prosecutor, demanding life imprisonment for President Chun Doo-hwan. Fearing imprisonment for his role in the mock trial, Yoon fled to Gangwon Province.
Yoon was exempted in 1982 from national service due to anisometropia (a type of eyesight defect). Yoon later stated that he was unable to obtain a driver's license because of the condition. After passing the first part of the bar exam in his fourth year of university, Yoon continued to attempt the second part over the next nine years. He eventually passed the bar in 1991, placing him in the same graduating class as Democratic Party Assemblyman and Minister of Justice Park Beom-kye.
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