On the 17th, North Korean media reported the arrest of President Yoon Suk-yeol, two days after his arrest. This photo is a reference image. On the afternoon of the 15th, President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was arrested by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials on charges of being the head of an insurrection, is being transferred to the Seoul Detention Center after completing an investigation at the office in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. [Yonhap]
‘[Herald Economy=Oh Sang-hyun] North Korean media reported the arrest of President Yoon Suk-yeol, two days after his arrest.’
Chosun Central Broadcasting and the Workers’ Party’s organ, Rodong Sinmun, reported on the 17th, “For the first time in history, a sitting president has been arrested, and the international community is urgently reporting on the news of puppet Yoon Suk-yeol being escorted by investigative authorities, focusing on the current situation of political turmoil in puppet South Korea.”
Rodong Sinmun and Chosun Central Broadcasting are internal media targeting North Korean citizens.
The broadcast introduced the process of executing a second arrest warrant as a “spectacle,” and “particularly commented on Yoon Suk-yeol’s miserable fate and the increasingly intensified confusion in South Korea.”
It continued, mentioning that “President Yoon will leave another record as the fifth to be imprisoned following Chun Doo-hwan, Roh Tae-woo, Park Geun-hye, and Lee Myung-bak,” and cited various foreign media predictions that “in the worst case, Yoon Suk-yeol could be sentenced to death, and there are concerns that South Korea’s political turmoil could be prolonged.”
The broadcast also evaluated that “even after being dragged to the investigative authorities, puppet Yoon Suk-yeol justified his crimes with the shameless logic that the opposition party incited division of public opinion with unconstitutional laws, and to prevent this, he declared martial law, a legitimate presidential authority.”
Since late November last year, North Korea has used internal media like the Rodong Sinmun, which is viewed by its citizens, to publish anti-Yoon group activities, such as rallies for Yoon Suk-yeol’s resignation, thereby fostering anti-South sentiment.
However, after remaining silent following the declaration of emergency martial law on the night of the 3rd of last month, North Korea included the martial law and impeachment situation in its internal media on the 11th and 12th of the same month, with the passage of the impeachment motion being reported two days later.
After reporting on the expansion of chaos in South Korea earlier this month, there was no further evaluation on the South Korean situation for some time, until they informed about President Yoon’s arrest two days later, focusing on foreign media’s facts and evaluations.