Suspended South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will receive a scheduled pay rise, official documents showed on Monday, despite an impeachment trial and investigation into his ill-fated martial law declaration.
Yoon suspended civilian rule on December 3, sending soldiers into parliament and plunging South Korea 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 probe with investigators seeking to detain him for questioning.
However, Yoon was given a raise, 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 AFP on Monday, indicates Yoon’s salary will rise to 262.6 million won ($178,400) — a three percent raise compared with last year.
Yoon is only suspended from duty 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, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who was himself impeached and is now suspended from office, will also receive a salary raise of three percent to 203.5 million ($138,350).
“It makes my blood boil. He’s (Yoon) getting paid for doing nothing,” one user wrote in a post on social media platform X that quickly went viral.
Yoon has refused to meet prosecutors and investigators probing 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 since the crisis began.
