Former prime minister and the spouse of ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol each indicted on separate expenses on the identical day.
Printed On 29 Aug 2025
South Korean prosecutors in separate instances have indicted former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo for aiding and abetting former President Yoon Suk-yeol’s short-lived imposition of martial regulation final yr, and the ex-president’s spouse, Kim Keon-hee, for bribery and different expenses.
The fees have been laid towards Han, 76, on Friday, in response to South Korea’s Yonhap information company. Further expenses embrace perjury and falsifying official paperwork.
Han had been below investigation by a staff of particular prosecutors for a number of weeks, in response to media experiences.
Former First Girl Kim was additionally indicted on expenses stemming from her alleged participation in a inventory manipulation scheme and acceptance of items from the controversial Unification Church, amongst different actions.
Attorneys for Kim have denied the allegations towards her and stated information experiences about a number of the items she allegedly acquired have been groundless hypothesis.
Assistant particular counsel Park Ji-young instructed a televised briefing that Han was the very best official who may have blocked Yoon’s try and impose martial regulation.
Park stated Han nonetheless performed an “energetic” function in Yoon’s martial regulation declaration by making an attempt to get Yoon’s decree handed by a Cupboard Council assembly as a method to give “procedural legitimacy” to it.
Han has maintained that he conveyed to Yoon that he opposed his martial regulation plan.
Kim and her ex-president husband have been arrested and are in jail, with Yoon already present process trial on expenses that embrace riot for his try and impose navy rule.
His spouse had been the topic of quite a few high-profile scandals, some relationship again greater than 15 years, which overshadowed his turbulent presidency and inflicted political injury on him and his conservative Folks Energy Get together (PPP).
Yoon was formally impeached in April.
Former Prime Minister Han stepped in twice to function performing president throughout the post-martial regulation chaos between December and Might, however he later resigned to take part in South Korea’s presidential election.
He failed, nevertheless, to safe the candidacy for the PPP.
The June 3 election was later received by the liberal Democratic Get together’s Lee Jae-myung, who had livestreamed himself climbing over the partitions of South Korea’s Nationwide Meeting to vote down the martial regulation declared by Yoon.