South Korea's impeached president gets a pay rise while still resisting arrest

South Korea's impeached president gets a pay rise while still resisting arrest

Yoon Suk Yeol delivers an address to the nation in Seoul in December. Photograph: Korean Presidential Office/ReutersView image in fullscreenYoon Suk Yeol delivers an address to the nation in Seoul in December. Photograph: Korean Presidential Office/ReutersSouth KoreaSouth Korea's impeached president gets a pay rise while still resisting arrest

Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed coup attempt in December plunged country into worst political crisis in decades

The impeached South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, will receive a pay rise, official documents revealed, as he continues to resist arrest over his ill-fated martial law declaration.

Yoon suspended civilian rule on 3 December, sending soldiers into parliament and plunging the country into its worst political crisis in decades. He was forced to backtrack hours later.

He has been impeached by lawmakers and is awaiting a final constitutional court ruling that could finalise his removal from office, while separately facing an insurrection investigation with investigators seeking to detain him for questioning.

Yoon was given the scheduled pay rise, according to the civil servant salary table for 2025, even as he remains holed up in the presidential residence using his security detail to resist arrest.

The document from the ministry of personnel management, seen by Agence France-Presse on Monday, indicates Yoon’s salary will rise to 262.6m won (£147,000) – a 3% raise compared with last year.

Yoon is suspended from duty only because the impeachment motion is still being deliberated by the constitutional court, so he retains his status as president and will be able to receive his salary and security benefits.

His successor as acting president, the prime minister, Han Duck-soo, who was himself impeached and is suspended from office, will also receive a salary raise of 3% to 203.5m won.

“It makes my blood boil. He’s (Yoon) getting paid for doing nothing,” one user wrote in a post on social media that quickly went viral.

Yoon has refused to meet prosecutors and investigators looking into his martial law declaration, and his presidential guard unit thwarted an attempt to arrest him following a tense, hours-long standoff this month.

Investigators are preparing another arrest attempt.

Rival protests for and against Yoon have been staged almost daily in the South Korean capital, Seoul, since the crisis began.