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Yoon Suk-yeol starts political activities at official residence after release from prison

입력 2025.03.11 17:36

Yoo Sae-seul, Park Sang-young

President Yoon Suk-yeol waves his hand to his supporters from a car as he arrives at his official residence after being released from the Seoul Detention Center on March 8. Yonhap News

President Yoon Suk-yeol has started “residence politics” after being released from the Seoul Detention Center. While the presidential office is officially keeping a low profile, many expect Yoon to continue sending messages to his supporters through ruling party lawmakers.

The ruling People's Power Party (PPP) said on March 10 that Kwon Young-se, head of the emergency leadership committee, and floor leader Kweon Seong-dong visited the presidential residence in Hannam-dong, Seoul the day before and had a talk with President Yoon. “They had a cup of tea last night from 8:30 to 8:30 p.m. and talked about the president’s health issues and how the president felt while imprisoned,” Shin Dong-wook, the PPP’s senior spokesman said at the National Assembly. ”(Yoon) thanked the two people for running the party well during his imprisonment.” He also said there were just the three of them in the meeting, with no one else present, such as First Lady Kim Keon-hee and officials from the presidential office.

The meeting was organized at the request of the ruling party and was not meant to be significant, the presidential office and ruling party officials said. It means that Yoon is humbly awaiting the ruling of the Constitutional Court's impeachment trial, but he did not intend to engage in public opinion formation.

However, the ruling party's decision to publicize the meeting may have reflected Yoon's intention. Since his release on March 8, Yoon has dined with key aides in the presidential office and talked over the phone with some PPP lawmakers, and the details of the conversations were also made public by the presidential office and the ruling party. It is highly likely that “residence politics” will continue, in which pro-Yoon lawmakers deliver Yoon’s messages to the public on his behalf after having a meeting with him at the official residence.

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Some inside the government say that the more Yoon's residence politics are in full swing, the more pressure will be exerted on Acting President and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok. Choi must decide by March 15 whether to exercise the right to request reconsideration over a special counsel bill to investigate power broker Myung Tae-kyun. First of all, a proposal to reconvene an extraordinary cabinet meeting without putting it on the agenda at the regular cabinet meeting on the 11th is discussed. Even with the appointment of Constitutional Court justice candidate Ma Eun-hyuk, it is likely that Acting President Choi will hold out until the Constitutional Court decides to impeach Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.

In preparation for Yoon's return to office, there were also media reports from a senior official in the presidential office that it has decided to review countermeasures against the issue of medical school admissions. However, the presidential office set out its official position and denied the reports, saying, “The president has not decided whether or not he will return to work.”

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.