South Korea’s Yoon Suk-yeol under pressure amid allegations of cover-up of soldier’s death, impeachment concerns

South Korea’s embattled President Yoon Suk-yeol is facing intensifying political pressure over allegations he was involved in covering up the death of a marine last year amid outrage over the deaths of two more young soldiers this month, with analysts suggesting it could ultimately lead to his impeachment.

Opposition parties on Tuesday narrowly failed to garner the required two-thirds majority in parliament to pass a bill, already vetoed by Yoon, calling for a special probe into the death of Corporal Chae Su-geun, who died during a controversial search operation in a monsoon-flooded river in July.

But the parties promised to continue efforts to pass the bill in the new parliament that opens on Thursday.

Choi Jin, head of the Institute for Presidential Leadership think tank, said it would be difficult for such a probe to find conclusive evidence or eyewitnesses that would testify against the sitting president, who just entered his third year in office of his five-year term.

“However, Yoon is facing mounting pressure to get to the bottom of the incident. Corporal Chae’s death, together with the alleged scandals surrounding his wife [Yoon’s wife Kim Keon-hee], are dangerously adding to grounds to seek Yoon’s impeachment,” he told This Week in Asia.

Yoon is accused of interfering in the investigation into Chae’s death to protect senior military officers after allegations emerged that safety protocols were ignored during the operation in which the corporal was killed.

Adding to the outrage are the recent deaths of two young soldiers in training. On Wednesday, a conscript who had joined the military just 10 days before died during a punishing corrective training exercise in which he was forced to run laps in full military gear