Photo: Yoon Suk-yeol at sentencing. Credit: Seoul Central District Court.
Only a minority of Koreans felt that life imprisonment sentence was a perfectly fitting punishment for Yoon Suk-yeol 윤석열’s insurrection attempt. In this week’s Gallup Korea 한국 갤럽 poll, only 29% thought the sentence got things right. The plurality (39%) felt that the sentence was too light, siding with the special prosecutor who sought a capital sentence against the impeached president.
Because South Korea does not in fact carry out the death penalty, a capital sentence in practical terms means life imprisonment without parole. In all of Gallup Korea’s polls concerning Yoon’s self-coup, approximately a quarter of respondents have consistently supported Yoon since December 2024. In this poll, again, 24% said life imprisonment was excessive.
