[yongjik]

The story is even wilder: because Yoon was a former prosecutor who went after the previous conservative president Park, when Moon (the previous liberal president) appointed Yoon as chief prosecutor, it was initially widely opposed by conservatives.

And what did he do? Almost immediately after becoming chief prosecutor, he starts hunting down Cho Kuk, his superior (minister of law) who Moon just appointed, and Cho's whole family members, in a blatantly motivated investigation. And also doing the same for Lee Jaemyung, the current opposition leader, who is now one supreme court verdict away from becoming ineligible for the next presidential election, for violating some election law.

(One can argue for days whether Cho and Lee did crimes, maybe they did some, but it's clear that if prosecutors were 10% as enthusiastic in investigating other politicians, half of the current legislative and executive branch would be out of jobs.)

...which gave him a gigantic publicity boost as "defender of law and order," but it was always built on hypocrisy and Korean prosecutors' ability to take care of their own first. We knew Yoon was a hypocrite, but nobody expected him to be crazy enough to start a coup. In one drunken decision Yoon apparently handed presidency to his archenemy Lee Jaemyung, who's also known for being rather divisive and not forgiving his enemies. Talk about karma.

[throw4321]

Would love to watch a Park Chan Wook biopic of this (if he did biopics.)