The presidential curse: South Korean leaders tend to get bad lots

More often than not, top people in Seoul get themselves into all sorts of trouble

“Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived,” goes the rhyme that the English use to memorize the mostly woeful fates of King Henry VIII’s six wives. South Koreans could use one for their leaders.

Last week, former President Yoon Suk-yeol, impeached for staging a failed coup in 2024, was sentenced to a symbolically harsh life term in prison.