On the 25th, President Yoon Suk-yeol said during the final opinion statement of the impeachment trial, "I saw the reality of this country going to the edge of a cliff, unable to perceive the reality in front of my eyes, like a frog in a slowly boiling pot."
On this day, President Yoon participated directly in the final opinion statement during the Constitutional Court's last court session for the impeachment trial. This is the first time in our constitutional history that a sitting president has taken part in a final statement during an impeachment trial. In the past, former Presidents Roh Moo-hyun and Park Geun-hye had their representatives read statements written by them.
President Yoon noted, "When observing state affairs from the position of the president with a lot of information, many issues that are not visible to others and problems that do not manifest themselves well come to light."
He continued, "If the crises we faced so far were at the level of sudden issues, now we are at a crisis of national existence and a crisis of the entire system, which are completely different in dimension." He added, "What is our reality? Can we assert that this is not a national emergency?"
President Yoon stated, "External forces infringing upon our sovereignty, including North Korea, in coordination with anti-state forces within our society, are seriously threatening national security and continuity." He also said, "They are driving our society into conflict and chaos through fake news, opinion manipulation, and propaganda." He pointed out, "Just looking at the case of the Democratic Labor Union spy ring detected in 2023, we can easily confirm the existence of anti-state forces."
President Yoon mentioned, "Industrial spies leaking core national technologies have also surged recently." He said, "China implements a strong anti-espionage law that allows them to arbitrarily detain our citizens for even a single photo taken incorrectly, but the giant opposition party is blocking even the amendment of espionage laws to prevent industrial spies."
President Yoon also stated, "The giant opposition party is trying to undermine our military by cutting the core defense budget." He argued, "The giant opposition party claims that they only cut a mere 0.6% of the total budget," adding, "It’s like saying you’ve taken out just two eyes from the whole body when you’ve actually removed both of a person's eyes."