Image: Diagram of the "presidential suite" in the Seoul Detention Center. Credit: Yonhap.
Yoon Suk-yeol 윤석열, now under arrest, joins the illustrious list of South Korean presidents who have been imprisoned. In its democratic era, South Korea has elected five conservative presidents; four - Roh Tae-woo 노태우, Lee Myung-bak 이명박, Park Geun-hye 박근혜 and Yoon - were subsequently imprisoned. A common political slang in South Korea is to refer to Lee as “716” and Park as “503,” using their inmate numbers. By the same logic, Yoon’s future nickname will likely be “0010.”
South Korea has amassed enough experience of imprisoning presidents for its prison to be already equipped with a presidential suite of sorts. Yoon will be imprisoned at the Seoul Detention Center 서울구치소 in a solitary cell measuring approximately 12 square meters (130 square feet), a space which usually houses between five and six prisoners.
Yoon’s unusually roomy cell also boasts amenities not available in a typical cell, such as a walled-off toilet (although the wall is translucent) and a dedicated television. The lack of internet access, however, will likely prove a difficult restriction for Yoon, whose steady diet of far-right YouTube content inspired his attempt at a self-coup.
Yoon is the first sitting president to be imprisoned, a distinction he earned by committing the only crime - insurrection - for which no presidential immunity applies. (Roh and Lee were imprisoned after their terms; Park was imprisoned after being removed from office through impeachment.) As the sitting president, Yoon is also the first president to receive a security detail while in prison. The presidential security detail will be stationed at the Seoul Detention Center’s administrative office, and will consult on the prison’s treatment of Yoon.