[Insight & Opinion] Conservative Public Sentiment on the Arrest and Detention of Yoon

Lee Jae-myung's First Election Law Trial Took 799 Days
Yoon's Impeachment Trial Held Twice a Week
Anti-Impeachment Protests Rise as Backlash

As conservatives witnessed the impeachment, arrest, and detention of President Yoon Seok-yeol, they experienced a complex mix of emotions. Recently, these feelings have leaned toward outrage. Until now, the discourse of outrage was predominantly a progressive domain. Progressives expressed outrage against dictatorship, deep-rooted evils, and the suppression of workers. However, during the impeachment crisis, conservative anger has become distinctly noticeable.

After the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Unit and the police arrested Yoon Seok-yeol, a man in his 50s set himself on fire near the Public Corruption Investigation Office building and lost consciousness. Previously, he had attempted the same near the presidential residence but was stopped. At that time, he reportedly told the police, "Why arrest the sitting president when Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the Democratic Party, is not being arrested? I did it out of anger." This anger evokes the primal state of natural equality, the so-called original position. Humans possess a universal sense of justice that perceives this state of equality. The man in his 50s may have felt inequality in how judicial authorities treated Lee Jae-myung's and Yoon Seok-yeol's charges and expressed his anger accordingly.

The progressive opposition party applied the charge of treason when passing the presidential impeachment motion but decided to exclude it from the Constitutional Court's impeachment grounds. The conservative ruling party protested, calling it a fraudulent impeachment. There were controversies over partial political bias in the jurisdiction over the president's investigation, the authority issuing warrants, the content of warrants excluding some criminal procedure laws, and the execution of warrants. Treason thus partially transformed into a political issue. Nevertheless, the sitting president was swiftly impeached, arrested, and detained on treason charges. In contrast, opposition leader Lee Jae-myung has faced five trials on 12 charges across eight cases but has neither been detained nor received a clear verdict except for the first trial on election law violations.

Conservatives also seem to view the Constitutional Court as problematic. "The impeachment prosecution team's lawyer said they would exclude the treason charge, adding that 'we believe this was recommended to us by the court.' There is even a recording." This was posted on a lawmaker's Facebook. The Constitutional Court denied the recommendation, but doubts remain unresolved.

Lee Jae-myung's first trial on election law violations took 799 days, six times longer than the average duration for such cases. It is known that Lee's side had some influence over the trial schedule and methods. In contrast, the Constitutional Court's impeachment trial of Yoon Seok-yeol proceeded rapidly, about twice a week. It was faster than impeachment trials of ministers and prosecutors. Yoon's side stated, "He is not a robot; even the president has human rights." Requests for schedule changes were not accepted. The Democratic Party warned, "Spreading false information via KakaoTalk can be punished as treason propaganda." Critics argued that KakaoTalk was being censored to suppress opposition to impeachment.

Some conservatives interpret these phenomena comprehensively. They feel that "before the trial results for Lee Jae-myung come out and before the terms of progressive Constitutional Court justices end, there is a rush to remove Yoon Seok-yeol and hold an early presidential election." This conservative resentment and backlash appear to have increased anti-impeachment protests and boosted support for the president and ruling party.

According to a survey, conservatives constitute the largest segment of the population. Their anger could become a driving force for social change. In the domestic film Inrang, conservative public anger against progressive power reaches a tipping point, triggering a civil war. Such dystopia is merely a product of cinematic imagination with no real possibility. However, society seems to have already entered a psychological civil war. Even if it takes time, it is important for social integration to secure legitimacy by going through cumbersome procedures one by one and providing ample opportunities for rebuttal.

Heo Man-seop, Professor at Gangneung-Wonju National University

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.