Ex-President Yoon’s Insurrection Case Takes a Twist: U.S. Ambassador’s Visit Blocked!

A special counsel team investigating detained former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s alleged insurrection blocked Morse Tan, the former U.S. ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice, from visiting Yoon’s cell near Seoul on Wednesday.

Tan has sparked controversy with his claims about election rigging in South Korea and allegations against the current liberal President Lee Jae Myung.

As of Tuesday, the special counsel team has barred Yoon from meeting anyone except his family or lawyers. This restriction will remain in place until his indictment, assistant special counsel Park Ji-young told reporters Wednesday, emphasizing that Tan would not be exempt from these measures.

Yoon is currently held at Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, following his re-arrest last week amid the ongoing special counsel probe into his alleged December 3 insurrection.

Park’s statement came in response to an announcement by Yoon’s legal team on Tuesday that Tan would visit the prison and meet Yoon for about 10 minutes Wednesday afternoon, at Tan’s request. Following the special counsel’s briefing, Yoon’s legal representatives confirmed that the planned meeting between Yoon and Tan had been canceled.

Tan arrived in South Korea on Monday and was greeted by a crowd of Yoon’s supporters at Incheon Airport.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government had invited Tan to deliver a speech at a forum on North Korean human rights on Tuesday. However, as controversy surrounding him grew, the city government canceled his speech.
Tan was also scheduled to give a special lecture at Seoul National University on Tuesday afternoon, in a session organized by a far-right group. The university, however, denied permission for the event to take place at a pre-arranged campus venue. As a result, the organizers moved the event to an outdoor location near the campus entrance.

Tan, who made history as the first Asian-American ambassador at large in U.S. history and previously served as dean of Liberty University School of Law, has alleged that elections in South Korea, including the recent presidential election in June, were rigged due to Chinese influence.

“What they could not completely win with bullets, they’re using weapons like fake ballots,” Tan said at the outdoor event near the Seoul National University campus on Tuesday. “President Yoon saw the dangers from the Chinese Communist Party and from North Korea and the dangers of fraudulently stolen elections.”

Tan also repeated an unsubstantiated claim about incumbent President Lee being involved in the sexual assault and murder of a young woman, which allegedly prevented her from completing her secondary education.

This claim, originally made at a press event in June at the National Press Club in Washington, has been refuted by a South Korean court.

During the same press event, Tan alleged that South Korea’s National Election Commission had targeted individuals who raised questions about potential election fraud.