I've been trying to stay away from politics and current events, but this is kind of important:
From a friend in Korea, about the conviction and sentencing of Yoon Suk Yeol:
— Gordon G. Chang (@GordonGChang) February 19, 2026
“Today, February 19 (KST), a Seoul court sentenced former President Yoon Suk-yeol to life imprisonment in connection with his December 3 emergency martial law declaration.
The prosecution had sought…
I imagine that that's a pre-arrest photo of Yoon. He hasn't been allowed to dye his hair while he's been detained. My guess is that Yoon will either serve his life sentence or be released early by the next conservative president—assuming that that hypothetical president is the next president because, frankly, I don't see Yoon lasting in jail much longer than a single presidential term (in Korea, a term is five years, and there's no second term).
My unprofessional opinion: Yoon should never have freaked out and declared martial law.
That said, do expand the tweet's text and read it in full. According to the text (which doesn't hide its right-leaning bias), the Korean left took some giant and ethically questionable liberties in how it interpreted law in order to arrive at the conclusion that Yoon had perpetrated an "insurrection" (반란/ballan) Can a sitting government do that? I thought insurrections, by definition, came from outside the government.
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| looking grayer (but better in my opinion) |
Man, that guy in uniform behind Yoon looks like he's in a FAFO mood.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, the word the opposition has used from the beginning (and the word used in the linked article) is 내란(內亂). 반란 implies opposition to a central authority, while 내란 is more an "internal" struggle. I will not comment here on how much more sense 내란 makes, but at least it is technically possible, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds as though the English translation "insurrection" is misleading, then. If anything, 내란(內亂 "internal chaos"...?) has more in common with the internal definition of jihad, i.e., one's inner struggle against prideful unwillingness to submit to the will of Allah (cf. al-Shaitan) and/or struggle against the temptations of the flesh. FWIW, Google's translation of 내란 is "civil war." Naver Dictionary, however, defines the term this way:
Delete1. 나라 안에서 정권(政權)을 차지할 목적(目的)으로 벌어지는 큰 싸움.
2. 일정(一定)한 조직(組織) 내부(內部)의 다툼.
—which Google Translate renders as:
1. A large-scale fight fought for the purpose of seizing power within a country. 2. A strife within a certain organization.
By this reckoning, I guess 內亂 is technically possible.
Yes, the English translation is definitely misleading--you have to take context into account when translating, and whoever did that translation failed to do so. It's still an open question whether even 내란 is what actually happened here, of course.
ReplyDelete