https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c...

Perversely, Yoon seemed untroubled by his party's election defeat.

"He said he could still give executive orders and accomplish a lot. He told me not to worry", said Linton, a conservative politician and one of the president's close confidantes at the time.

According to various testimonies, this was about the time Yoon's martial law plot began to take shape.

By now, he appeared to be fully immersed in unsubstantiated conspiracy theories, peddled by influential far-right YouTubers whose content he was consuming. He believed the opposition was taking orders from North Korea, or at least those who idolised the regime, though he never presented any proof.

Linton said Yoon talked repeatedly of how the opposition party was being run by Marxists, once comparing them to the Chinese Communist Party. He thought that, if in power, they would turn South Korea into an authoritarian communist state and bankrupt the country.

"I got this speech at least 15 to 20 times."

The stronger the opposition got, the more headstrong Yoon became, using his presidential veto to block parliament's decisions. In return the assembly slashed his budgets, impeached an unprecedented number of his political appointees, and tried to investigate his wife for corruption.

According to Linton, Yoon was "livid". "They are trying to bring me down, the government down, and end our democracy - and we can't put up with it," he told him.

On 3 December, he finally snapped.

"He saw martial law as a method for punishing the opposition. He felt that somebody had to stand up to them," Linton said.

- "그는 계엄을 반대파를 처단할 수단으로 보았다." 라고 린튼은 말했다.

"Once he makes a decision he doesn't hesitate," he added, suggesting it was unlikely Yoon had fully thought his plan through. "It was a poor decision, and he is paying the consequences now, but I think he sincerely thought he had the country's best interests at heart."

- "그것은 현명하지 못한 결정이었고, 그리고 지금 그는 그 대가를 치르고 있는 중이다."

In a roundabout way, his schoolfriend Chulwoo Lee agrees: "He had this delusion he could save the nation from communist threats, but I have no sympathy for him; he has jeopardised our democracy."

As misguided as he was, Yoon did what he thought was right with little care for the consequences, echoed Shin.

"This was exactly how he lived his 30 years as a prosecutor. In this sense, martial law was something only Yoon could have done."

BBC랑 인터뷰할때는 탄핵표결에 참석하지 않고 런했던 국민의힘 국회의원 인요한이 아니라 대한민국의 정치평론가 미스터 린튼인가보네