Photo: Former General Gwak Jong-geun testifies at the Constitutional Court. Credit: Kyunghyang Shinmun.
One of the defining moments of Yoon Suk-yeol 윤석열’s presidency came during a visit to the United States in September 2022, when the impeached president was caught on a hot mic saying “Biden will be fucking humiliated if those pricks in Congress don’t pass this. 국회에서 이 새끼들이 승인 안 해주면 바이든은 쪽팔려서 어떡하나.” A lesser politician might have apologized for such an unguarded moment, or perhaps dismissed it as a distraction and moved on - but not Yoon.
Instead, Yoon’s office made the manifestly false claim that Yoon had been saying “nallimyeon 날리면” or “lop off,” not “Biden,” and that by “Congress” Yoon had been referring to South Korea’s National Assembly - an explanation that demands the listener disregard both the clearly audible words of the president and the rules of Korean grammar. (See previous coverage: “Yoon’s ‘Biden’ Gaslighting.”) It was an early sign of Yoon’s modus operandi - which he has maintained throughout his impeachment trial before the Constitutional Court 헌법재판소.
A major point of contention in the impeachment trial is whether Yoon ordered the military to drag out the legislators who were voting to dissolve his martial law decree - a flagrant violation of the statutes governing decrees of martial law, which prohibit interference with political activities, including votes to lift the decree. In a blow to Yoon, former Special Forces Commander Gwak Jong-geun 곽종근 전 특전사령관 testified on February 6 that the president ordered the general, who was at the National Assembly 국회, to “break down the doors and take out the individuals inside 문 부수고 들어가서 안에 있는 인원 끄집어내라” - that is, to stop legislators from voting to lift martial law.
Yoon, speaking in his own defense, claimed that Gwak was lying, because he does not use the word “individuals 인원” - a military turn of phrase, according to Yoon, who added that as a civilian, he would have simply said “people 사람” in that context. Never, in all his life - said Yoon - has Yoon used the word “individuals” when “people” would do.
Exactly one minute later, Yoon argued: “The military was there to secure the National Assembly and entered the premises to bring the unnecessary individuals under control.” “Fewer than 15, 20 individuals from the military entered the building,” Yoon added 36 seconds later, clarifying after another seven seconds that he “was well aware that there were many individuals in the seventh floor of [the National Assembly Hall].”
When journalists asked Yoon’s attorney about the impeached president’s use of the term “individuals” three times in a row immediately after denying ever having used the term, Yoon’s attorney claimed that he did not remember that argument.