Supporters of South Korea's Yoon adopt 'Stop the Steal', hope Trump will help

SEOUL — Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol are adopting "Stop the Steal" slogans popularised by US President-elect Donald Trump supporters and said they hoped the incoming president would help their embattled leader.

As Yoon supporters gathered outside his residence in the pre-dawn hours of Friday in an effort to prevent his arrest, some carried signs in English saying "Stop the Steal", a slogan Trump supporters used to question the results of the 2020 US presidential election, which he lost.

Yoon avoided arrest on Friday after presidential guards and troops blocked efforts to carry out a warrant in a criminal insurrection investigation into his short-lived martial law on Dec 3.

Trump, who is set to take office for a second term on Jan 21, has not commented on Yoon's situation and there are no clear ties between his campaign and Yoon's backers.

But searches for the hashtag #StopTheSteal or "election fraud" in Korean on social media platform X show recent posts uploaded from Koreans featuring memes whose design appears to have been inspired by Trump's "Make America Great Again" sign.

Yoon's defence of his actions has also had similarities to Trump's political rhetoric with him citing possible voting irregularities and defending the country from enemies within and without.

While Yoon made no mention of election issues in his initial martial law declaration, he dispatched hundreds of troops to raid the National Election Commission (NEC) and later alleged North Korea had hacked the NEC, but cited no evidence.

He said the attack was detected by the National Intelligence Service but the commission, an independent agency, refused to co-operate fully in an investigation and inspection of its system.

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