105 South Koreans sue former president for 'emotional damages'

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It's been a season of legal woes for former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
His short-lived declaration of martial law on Dec. 3 first landed him in front of the Constitutional Court — which removed him from office later that month — and then in the Seoul Central District Court, where he is now being tried on charges of insurrection.
There is also the group of 105 irate citizens suing Yoon for emotional damages related to his power grab, which sent special forces soldiers to occupy the National Assembly and brought the press briefly under military control.
Filed shortly after South Korean lawmakers voted to overrule Yoon's martial law order last year, the lawsuit is demanding compensation of 100,000 won ($73) for each of its plaintiffs. The first hearing is due later this month.
'The defendant's declaration of emergency martial law and the actions that followed were unlawful, violating the plaintiffs' basic rights as South Korean citizens such as the freedom to one's life and body and the guarantee of human dignity, in addition to inflicting mental harm such as fear, anxiety, discomfort and shame,' the complaint said.
Behind those words is Lee Gum-gyu, a 52-year-old attorney who specializes in urban development law, but has become nationally known for facing down presidents in their impeachment trials.
Read more: How a former factory worker rose to South Korea's presidency
The first was conservative president Park Geun-hye, whom Lee, as a member of the legislature's legal team, helped oust in 2016 following a major graft scandal.
The second — and the only other South Korean leader to be removed from office — was Yoon.
As a member of the National Assembly's legal team in the Constitutional Court trial that confirmed Yoon's impeachment, Lee used his closing argument to speak of the fear he felt for his son, who was a conscript in the military.
'The fact of emergency martial law itself filled me with fear, but the thought that my son might be deployed to enforce it was even more horrifying,' he said.
The civil suit, he says, is largely symbolic — one final rebuke of Yoon. It is why Lee gathered exactly 105 plaintiffs: the number of pro-Yoon legislators who boycotted his impeachment.
And the asking sum of 100,000 won ($73) each?
'I thought about keeping it at 10,000 won ($7.30), but that seemed like too little. My pride wouldn't let me,' Lee said.
'Obviously there isn't a formula for something like this, but 100,000 won just seemed more appropriate.'
The success rate of emotional damages claims against former presidents is not high.
The closest example is a series of similar suits filed by South Korean citizens against Park in 2016. They sought 500,000 won ($364) per plaintiff.
But the Supreme Court dismissed those claims in 2020, saying that 'even if there were South Korean citizens who felt emotions like anger due to the defendant's actions, it cannot be said that this constituted a level of mental distress that necessitates compensation for every citizen.'
Read more: South Korea's Constitutional Court removes President Yoon Suk Yeol from office
Still, Lee figures that his suit against Yoon has at least a marginally higher chance of success, given the far graver offense at hand.
'The case against Park was related to corruption — it wasn't a case of the president unconstitutionally infringing on people's basic rights,' he said. 'The martial law forces actually went to the National Assembly and pointed their rifles at legislators and their staff. I do think that people's right to life was directly threatened.'
Some legal experts agree.
'I am also curious whether this will work or not,' said a judge in Seoul who requested anonymity to comment on an ongoing case. 'Under current jurisprudence, I don't think it's entirely impossible.'
Given South Korea's history with authoritarianism, Lee argues, the claim to emotional distress isn't just courtroom theater. South Koreans lived under a dictatorship as recently as the 1980s. Political repression and violence are still part of the country's memory.
The last declaration of martial law was made in May 1980 by the Chun Doo-hwan military junta, which sent special forces units to violently quash pro-democracy protests in the city of Gwangju. More than 160 civilians were killed, many of them gunned down by soldiers in the streets.
Lee, who is from Gwangju, remembers watching a tank roll down the street behind his house as a child.
'The national trauma from those events led to a real and deep fear in many South Koreans,' he said.
Han Ki-chang, a real estate agent and one of the 105 plaintiffs, says that he suffered from 'martial law insomnia.'
The term entered the popular vernacular in the last few months and has been covered by the national media as an anecdotal phenomenon, with some older South Koreans saying it stirred panicked memories of living under authoritarian rule.
'It was real. I had trouble sleeping in January and February,' Han said. 'And I could tell I wasn't the only one. Whenever I'd message people or post in a group chat in the middle of the night, a lot of people would respond, saying they needed to sleep but couldn't.'
At least one other group is preparing their own emotional damages lawsuit against the former president.
Lee, the attorney, expects that there will be even more suits because he has been sending out copies of his complaint to anyone who wants it. They can just fill in their names and file their own.
'If we win this case, that might make it possible for all 52 million South Korean citizens to claim damages,' he said.
He quickly did the math: at $7.30 per person, a total of $380 million.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.