As president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol lived in a luxurious hilltop mansion, threw parties and had a small army of personal guards. These days, he is alone in a 107-square-foot jail cell, eating simple food like noodles and kimchi soup, and sleeping on the floor.
This will be his new reality for a while yet, after he was formally arrested on insurrection charges early Sunday, according to the Korean news agency Yonhap, as part of an investigation into his ill-fated declaration of martial law last month.
Mr. Yoon, 64, has been in the Seoul Detention Center, a government-run jail south of Seoul, since Wednesday, when he became the first sitting president in South Korean history to be detained in a criminal investigation. When a district court in Seoul issued the warrant to arrest him, he went from being a temporary detainee to a criminal suspect facing an indictment and trial.
That change in status meant that Mr. Yoon was unlikely to leave jail any time soon. Within the next 18 days, criminal investigators and prosecutors were expected to indict him on charges of leading an insurrection during his short-lived martial law last month. If he is convicted, he will face life imprisonment or the death penalty.
Mr. Yoon’s new circumstances were symbolic of his dramatic fall from grace: from a swaggering head of state to an impeached president to an inmate accused of committing one of the worst offenses in South Korea’s criminal code. He is the first South Korean to face insurrection charges since the former military dictator Chun Doo-hwan, who was convicted in the 1990s.
As president, Mr. Yoon loved to throw parties, often inviting like-minded politicians to evening drinks and even cooking and serving rolled egg and barbecue to his presidential press corps. He showed off his well-honed entertaining skills abroad when he belted out “American Pie” during a White House dinner in 2023.
Now, Mr. Yoon will wake up not to presidential aides and chefs catering to his needs, but to a simple jail breakfast usually made up of dumpling soup, bread or cereals. An average meal in jail costs $1.20.
The dramatic political upheaval he unleashed appears to have stunned him as much as everyday South Koreans.
“Ironically, it was after I was impeached that I truly realized that I am, indeed, the president,” Mr. Yoon said in a lengthy statement on Wednesday.
Many South Korean politicians and dignitaries — including two former presidents and Lee Jae-yong, the head of the Samsung conglomerate — have been held at the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, a city south of Seoul. When he was a prosecutor, Mr. Yoon helped put one of the two former presidents, Park Geun-hye, there on corruption charges. The jail also holds some of the country’s most infamous death row inmates, including serial killers.
Government officials said Mr. Yoon would get no special treatment, except that he would be kept in a room of his own, away from other detainees and inmates. After his formal arrest, he was expected to go through a simple medical checkup and receive a toothbrush and other necessities for jail life. He would be assigned an inmate number and a pea-green jail uniform.
His cell will have a TV set, a sink, a small cupboard, a reading desk that doubles as a dinner table, and a foldable mattress for sleeping. The cell has a toilet but no shower. The space will be monitored around the clock through closed-circuit television.
Mr. Yoon has been an avid follower of right-wing YouTubers who supported his government and spread conspiracy theories that depicted his domestic enemies as dangerous sympathizers with North Korea and China. Since he declared martial law on Dec. 3, Mr. Yoon has said his action was inspired in part by the same fear, indignation and suspicions spread by the extremists on YouTube.
The jail TV shows only programs authorized by the Ministry of Justice. Inmates have no access to the internet, including YouTube. At rallies calling for Mr. Yoon’s arrest in recent weeks, some protesters held signs that read: “Yoon Suk Yeol: It’s time for a digital detox!”
Yang Kyeung-soo, a labor union leader who had spent time in a solitary cell in the Seoul Detention Center, posted jail survival tips on X. “You have to learn how to save warm water because you wash your own dishes. If you eat everything they serve, you will gain weight quickly.”
Mr. Yoon was expected to meet frequently with his attorneys in a visiting area to prepare for his trials. Separately, the country’s Constitutional Court is deliberating whether the National Assembly’s vote on Dec. 14 to impeach him was legitimate and if he should be formally removed from office.
Mr. Yoon’s martial law lasted only six hours because the opposition-dominated National Assembly voted it down. But during that brief period, he ordered military commanders to seize the Assembly and arrest his political enemies, according to prosecutors who have arrested and indicted the military generals accused of helping Mr. Yoon commit insurrection.
Mr. Yoon and his lawyers insisted that his imposition of martial law was a legitimate use of presidential power.
After they detained Mr. Yoon on Wednesday, officials from the country’s Corruption Investigation Office For High-ranking Officials questioned him until he was sent to rest in a cell at the Seoul Detention Center. But he has since refused to leave his cell to face more questioning.
“He made his basic positions known during the first day of questioning, and he no longer feels a reason or need to subject himself to a question-and-answer type of interrogation,” said one of his lawyers, Seok Dong-hyeon.
When Ms. Park, the former president, was held in the detention center, die-hard supporters gathered near its walls every morning and shouted “Good morning, President Park Geun-hye!”
Since Mr. Yoon’s arrival, some supporters have camped outside, calling his impeachment and his arrest “null and void.”
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