Yoon fans steadfast as South Korean leader faces impeachment

SEOUL: Supporters of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol shared dark conspiracy theories and braved freezing weather in downtown Seoul on Saturday (Dec 14) ahead of an impeachment vote that could remove their leader from office.

Opinion polls showed Friday that more than 75 percent of the South Korean public say Yoon must be impeached for last week's botched attempt to impose the country's first martial law in decades.

But a vocal minority still back him, gathering in the thousands at Seoul's central square Saturday morning to oppose impeachment while claiming the country's elections have been rigged and the opposition infiltrated by pro-North Korea elements.

"Yoon had no choice but to declare martial law. I approve of every decision he has made as president," Choi Hee-sun, 62, told AFP, clutching a South Korean flag.

"It has been statistically proven 100 percent that our elections were manipulated," she said.

"We have absolute evidence."

Anti-Yoon protesters are predominantly young, their rallies featuring a festival-like atmosphere with slogans set to K-pop songs, glow sticks, and whimsical protest banners.

Yoon's supporters are much older - and their anthems are distinctly less upbeat.

One song declared: "If I could save my motherland by sacrificing my life, I'd gladly do so".

And a protester dressed in military uniform warned the country would fall under the control of "pro-North Korea" forces if the impeachment goes ahead.

It echoed Yoon's own words during the martial law declaration, in which he vowed to protect the country from shadowy pro-communist actors.

"There are so many North Korea followers in the opposition now," said the 70-year-old protester, who asked to be identified only by his surname Yoon.

"We can't trust them."

And with lawmakers due to vote in the afternoon, one banner warned: "We cannot entrust the steering wheel to madmen."

Lee Young-sook, 72, said such a scenario was "unimaginable".

"Without the president, there is no country," she told AFP.

"I've come out here today to protect my country, despite the cold weather."

Conspiracy theories flourished on South Korean social media long before the martial law declaration.

But many within the online conspiracy ecosystem have felt vindicated by Yoon's claims that the National Election Commission (NEC) was vulnerable to outside interference.

The NEC has denied the interference allegations and said the "allegations of election fraud are ... a self-denial of the electoral system that brought him into office".

Yoon was elected in 2022 by the narrowest vote margin in the country's history.

But that did not fly with loyalist Choi.

"Had it not been rigged, Yoon would have won by more than 20 per cent," she said.