Yoon Joins Growing List of Korean Presidents Purged From Power

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s demise may have been swift and shocking, but he is just the latest in a growing list of South Korean leaders who’ve seen their fortunes turn after rising to power. 

Though the nation has only voted-in eight presidents since fully democratic elections began in the country in 1987, all but three of them have either ended up in jail, gotten impeached or both. One committed suicide. 

Here’s a look back at the former heads of state and what happened to them.

Park took office in 2013 to become the country’s first and only female president and served for three years before she was impeached in 2016. The Constitutional Court forcibly removed her the following year. The conservative politician was later convicted of criminal charges including bribery, extortion and abuse of power. 

She was pardoned in 2021 by then-President Moon Jae-in after serving five years of a 22-year sentence. While in prison, she was hospitalized several times for shoulder and back pain.

Her father was Park Chung-hee, the country’s longest serving president. Though he was a military dictator who seized power in a coup in 1961, he is also credited with modernizing the country before his assassination in 1979. 

Lee was the country’s fifth democratically-elected president and served in that role from 2008 to 2013. Lee rose from poverty to become an executive at Hyundai Engineering & Construction, and gained popularity as a self-made man. His hard-charging style earned him the nickname “bulldozer.”

He entered politics in his 50s, becoming a member of parliament and mayor of Seoul. He focused on improving quality of life in the capital by speeding up commutes and restoring a river in the center of the city. His presidency was also marked by mass protests and renewed tensions with North Korea. 

After leaving office, he was jailed for corruption in 2018 after receiving a lengthy sentence. He was pardoned in 2022 by Yoon. 

The former human rights lawyer served as president from 2003 to 2008 and often boasted that his administration was the nation’s cleanest.

In 2004 he was impeached for election-law violations and economic mishandling, in the National Assembly’s first attempt to remove a head of state. Still, the constitutional court ended up restoring him to office about two months later.

Roh also made the ambitious move to try and shift the nation’s capital away from Seoul but faced strong opposition. Months after leaving office, he became embroiled in a bribery investigation and committed suicide by jumping off a cliff. 

Roh never attended university. He studied on his own to become a judge and then a lawyer, opening his own firm in 1978 and specializing in human rights cases. The 2013 movie The Attorney was based on his life. 

Korea’s first democratically-elected president led the country from 1988 to 1993. His presidency was marked by historic diplomatic accomplishments that included South Korea’s ascension to the United Nations. It was also marred by massive corruption that culminated with a criminal conviction three years after leaving office.

Roh was associated with the bloody military crackdown against anti-government protesters in Gwangju in 1980, when armed troops put down a 10-day revolt that resulted in the death of hundreds, if not thousands. Roh, then a general, was the right-hand man to Chun Doo-hwan, a former general who became president by military coup and was Roh’s predecessor in office.

Chun picked Roh as his party’s candidate for the presidential election in 1987, a move seen as a military handover of power. In response, pro-democracy rallies spread in Seoul and across the nation. 

Roh bowed to the pressure and allowed an open vote, with prospects slim at the time that he could win. He won despite taking just 36.6% of the popular vote after opposition leaders Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung both entered the race and split the progressive vote.

He and Chun were tried for corruption, mutiny and treason for their roles in the Gwangju killings and the coup that brought Chun to power. Chun was sentenced to death and Roh received a 22.5-year prison sentence.

But they were released under a presidential amnesty in 1997 and Roh mostly faded from the public’s view.

Roh died in 2021 at the age of 88. Chun died less than a month later at 90.

With assistance from Sam Kim.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.