Hundreds of supporters lined the streets near South Korea’s presidential residence on Friday evening, chanting “Yoon again” and waving South Korean and American flags as former president Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee departed following his impeachment a week earlier.
“Fraudulent impeachment! Null and void!” the crowd shouted, as Yoon hugged younger supporters, shook hands and exited the grounds shortly after 5pm local time. He waved to the crowd and raised a clenched fist before leaving.
The couple returned to their private home in southern Seoul, exactly one week after the Constitutional Court unanimously upheld Yoon’s impeachment over his attempt to impose martial law in December – a move it ruled unconstitutional and based on unsubstantiated claims of election interference by China and North Korea.
Yet for Yoon’s core supporters – many of them older, deeply conservative and staunchly anti-communist – the ruling only deepened mistrust towards the judiciary, the opposition and even members of his own People Power Party.
Seventy-year-old retiree Moon Keun-chan echoed a common refrain: that Yoon’s downfall was not just a political misstep, but also a setback in the country’s battle against communism.
