the ‘traitor’ at the heart of South Korea’s impeachment drama

Han Dong-Hoon was driving residence from dinner in Seoul on December 3, scanning the radio, when he heard a breaking information replace: President Yoon Suk-Yeol was making ready to ship an emergency handle.

Han, then the chief of Yoon’s Individuals Energy Occasion (PPP), was broadly seen as one of many presiden’t closest allies. But that was Han’s first trace that Yoon was about to do one thing unprecedented.

By midnight, the president had plunged the country into a political maelstrom, declaring martial law as a part of a self-proclaimed bid to remove “anti-state forces” and North Korea sympathisers.

“After I first heard the information of martial legislation, I assumed, ‘We should cease it, as a result of if it is not lifted that very evening, a massacre may happen,'” Han tells BBC Korean.

“The worry and terror that South Korea’s decades-long, hard-won achievements may all of a sudden collapse have been overwhelming.”

Quickly after Yoon’s announcement, the opposition’s Democratic Occasion chief hosted a reside stream urging people to assemble in protest exterior the Nationwide Meeting constructing in central Seoul.

1000’s responded, clashing with police and blocking military units as opposition lawmakers rushed into the meeting constructing, clambering over fences and partitions in a determined try to dam Yoon’s order.

Han was amongst them.

The late-night martial legislation edict appeared to have come from nowhere. It was, and stays, unclear who in Yoon’s get together supported and even knew of the transfer earlier than it was made. However within the hours that adopted, Han would assist lead a profitable try and overturn Yoon’s order and have the declaration lifted.

Weeks later, he would additionally play a key function in impeaching the disgraced president – a transfer that may see him branded a “traitor” by mainstream members of the PPP, and in the end result in his resignation as get together chief.

Han says he has “no regrets” about overturning Yoon’s martial legislation try, insisting that he’d “select the identical once more”.

However in many individuals’s eyes, his subsequent resolution to question the very president he’d helped get elected was a shocking heel flip for somebody previously seen as Yoon’s right-hand man.

“We now have skilled a lot collectively over a few years,” Han says of his relationship with Yoon.

“I discover the present scenario extraordinarily painful and regretful. Each the president and I labored in good religion for the betterment of our nation – but I have to say that I deeply remorse how issues have turned out.”

For years, Han and Yoon have been inseparable allies. Having each attended Seoul Nationwide College, the 2 solid an in depth bond as prosecutors whereas collectively investigating corruption within the nation’s halls of energy.

Han gained political prominence when Yoon was narrowly elected president in Might 2022, after beating his opponent by lower than 1% of the vote.

Han was made Minister of Justice and later entrusted with the important thing function of Emergency Countermeasures Committee Chairman for the PPP, changing into the chief of the ruling get together on the age of fifty.

Yoon’s time in workplace was beleaguered by scandals and political failures – not least of all his landslide loss to the opposition Democratic Occasion final April.

The results of these parliamentary elections was broadly seen as a vote of no confidence in opposition to Yoon, and rendered him a lame-duck president.

For many of Yoon’s administration, the PPP’s conservative base was keen about Han. The lawyer-turned-politician had shortly emerged as a possible get together candidate for the following presidential election, initially scheduled for 2027.

Now, because the rising probability of a 2025 election looms amid the fallout of Yoon’s ill-fated martial legislation try, Han’s status is basically outlined by the way in which he acted throughout and after that fateful evening.

Whereas some nonetheless see him as a contemporary and promising political determine, many view him as having betrayed the very president who had furthered his profession.

Within the weeks following Yoon’s abortive martial legislation order, the embattled president curried favour amongst PPP hardliners by refusing to cede political floor.

Whereas he apologised for the occasions of December 3, he refused to resign, as an alternative holing up in his official residence in defiance of requires his impeachment.

He rallied his base and defended his resolution by playing on unsubstantiated fears that the nation was at risk.

It was these staunch Yoon loyalists who would come to show in opposition to Han.

Regardless of having rejected Yoon’s martial legislation declaration on December 3, Han initially opposed the impeachment movement put forth in opposition to the president by South Korea’s political opposition – siding with virtually each different PPP member in boycotting the first vote on December 7.

Days later, Han modified course. This was after allegations had emerged that in the course of the martial legislation try Yoon had ordered key political figures – together with Han – to be arrested. In allegiance together with his shut political aides, Han threw his full assist behind a second and in the end profitable impeachment try, ousting Yoon as president.

“I needed nothing greater than for this authorities to succeed,” Han tells the BBC, reflecting on the storm of condemnation that then adopted from inside his personal get together ranks.

“I initially sought an orderly early resignation plan for the president – a plan I earnestly pursued, however which in the end failed,” he provides.

“I’m deeply pained by the result and empathise with those that stay unconvinced and heartbroken. Nonetheless, I imagine it was a vital resolution for South Korea’s continued progress and improvement.”

Yoon has been suspended from his presidential duties and is presently under investigation on insurrection charges. Han, in the meantime, stepped down as PPP chief in mid-December, sustaining that though Yoon’s impeachment was painful, he didn’t remorse his resolution.

Within the two months that adopted, Han says he took a while to “quietly mirror” on whether or not he might have executed extra throughout such a turbulent interval for South Korea.

“And I wrote a e book,” he provides: a memoir, titled “The Individuals Come First”, which chronicles the 2 weeks following Yoon’s martial legislation declaration.

It is no shock the e book has turn into a bestseller: in spite of everything, it claims to be a first-hand account of occasions which have already gone down as among the most dramatic in South Korea’s political historical past. It hit cabinets on 26 February, at some point after the Constitutional Courtroom held its last listening to on Yoon’s impeachment trial.

It additionally hints at Han’s future ambitions. Publishing a memoir is seen as a typical first step in launching a political marketing campaign in South Korea, and a few imagine “The Individuals Come First” underscores Han’s hopes to run because the PPP’s presidential candidate, if the court docket impeaches Yoon and triggers a snap election.

Throughout the e book’s 384 pages, Han additionally discusses the necessity for constitutional reform and means that if he have been to turn into president, he would change South Korea’s five-year presidential time period to 4 years.

Ought to he select to run, the memoir serves to remind South Koreans the place he stands on essential points – and that he’s now not an ally of a disgraced president.

Because it stands, the chances look stacked in opposition to him. A current ballot discovered that Han’s approval score to turn into the following president sat at 6% – a fraction of the 22% score he scored in January 2024. The decline of his political fortunes is compounded by the critics inside the PPP, who accuse him of failing to guard each his former get together and the president.

However Han performs down the suggestion that his memoir is meant as a political software.

“I’ve printed a e book during which I honestly categorical what I skilled and thought throughout these occasions,” he tells the BBC. “I’m not returning with any particular political manoeuvre, however merely to share that message with you all.”

One other message Han appears desperate to share is one in all contrition in the direction of the folks of South Korea. He does not remorse voting to question his president and former ally, he insists, however he does remorse this.

“Yoon did impose martial legislation, and I imagine that was a incorrect act – one that doesn’t align with the ideas of liberal democracy,” he says. “Because the chief of the ruling get together that put that president in workplace, I need to categorical my deepest apologies to the folks.”

“I’m actually sorry that our actions, and the reactions we displayed, harm the folks. I feel we should overcome and resolve this disaster.”