South Korea’s President Yoon in court for preliminary ‘rebellion’ hearing
Al JazeeraMAR 4
South Korea's Yoon Attends First Hearing of Criminal Trial for Insurrection
Above: South Korea's impeached Pres. Yoon Suk Yeol attends a hearing for his impeachment trial at the Constitutional Court in Seoul on Feb. 4, 2025. Image copyright: Lee Young-ho/Sipa/Bloomberg/Contributor via Getty Images
The Spin
Narrative A
If his claims were true, Yoon would have sought numerous alternatives to declaring martial law. There's plenty of evidence that he sought to subvert the constitutional order, destroy civil liberties, and instigate an insurrection — all in an attempt to escape criminal accountability for himself and his wife, or perhaps even to guarantee that he and his cronies would remain in power.
Narrative B
South Korea's constitutional order is at risk, and Yoon isn't the one to blame for that. Courts may indeed decide that he committed an impeachable offense and even that his martial law declaration amounts to an act of insurrection, but the nation has come to realize that the leftist opposition is the one running a lawfare coup.