Trump ally Gordon urges fair impeachment trial for Yoon

Feb 27, 2025, 07:36 am

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U.S. Attorney Gordon Chang speaks during a forum titled "The Subversion Threats to the Republic of Korea: Anti-state Forces, North Korea, and the Chinese Communist Party” at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 25, 2025./ Source: Washington correspondent Ha Man-joo

Washington correspondent Ha Man-joo

American lawyer Gordon Chang emphasized Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump should call for a fair impeachment trial for South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.

Chang spoke at a forum held at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington, D.C., under the theme "The Subversion Threats to the Republic of Korea: Anti-State Forces, North Korea, and the Chinese Communist Party." "The American people and U.S. President Trump should publicly declare that the U.S. and the world are watching the impeachment process and hope that the outcome will be determined fairly according to Korean law," he said.

Chang acknowledged the difficulty for the Trump administration, as they don't want to appear to be interfering in the internal affairs of another country. He vowed to continue writing and speaking out on the issue to catch the attention of someone in the Trump administration.

This reiterates a request made during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held last Friday near Washington, D.C., at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland. At the event, former U.S. State Department Ambassador-at-Large for International Criminal Justice Morse Tan and Korean CPAC co-chair Choi Won-mok asked President Trump to urge a thorough investigation into allegations of election fraud in South Korea before the Constitutional Court's impeachment ruling on President Yoon, dubbed "Korea's Trump."

Chang was introduced by President Trump to thousands of attendees during his CPAC closing speech last Saturday and is a trusted expert on Northeast Asia. In his 2023 CPAC speech, Trump mentioned that his views on China align with those of Chang.

"The Trump administration is watching what is happening in South Korea, especially as one of the allies with which the U.S. has a security treaty. They support constitutional democracy worldwide, including in South Korea, and the consequences of democratic subversion for our ally (South Korea) would be indescribable, with terrible international implications for defending freedom in Asia," said Nicholas Eberstadt, Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), who participated in the panel discussion.

Previously, Eberstadt highlighted that "friends of an open society in South Korea are clearly united with conservatives, while the enemies of an open society are almost perfectly aligned with the opposition" at a U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) roundtable on the 17th of last month at DACOR Bacon House near the White House in Washington, D.C. He compared the opposition leadership to "Jacobin radicals" from the French Revolution.

Suzanne Scholte, President of the Defense Forum Foundation and North Korea Freedom Coalition, expressed complete agreement and empathy with Chang's suggestion that President Trump issue a strong statement on the ongoing situation. She emphasized, "Although the U.S. cannot interfere in internal affairs, the world, not just America, must make it clear that we are watching South Korea, where liberal democracy is at risk."

#Gordon #Yoon Suk-yeol