No festival meal for ex-South Korea president Yoon as jail tightens budget

For the first time, South Korea’s prisons scrapped the traditional ‘special meals’ that were offered to inmates on national holidays

Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife Kim Keon Hee spent the traditional Chuseok festival without receiving any of the traditional “special meals” that have long been a customary offering to inmates on national holidays, officials confirmed.

The mid-autumn festival of Chuseok is one of the nation’s most important holidays, and many South Koreans gather with family, visit ancestral graves, and share elaborate ritual meals. This year, Chuseok fell on 6 October, marking the start of a three-day national holiday that will run until 8 October.

Previously, prisons would provide “holiday menus” to mark Chuseok and the Lunar New Year, under provisions in the Enforcement Decree of the Act on the Execution of Sentences and Treatment of Inmates.

However, the Ministry of Justice has now discontinued the practice of special holiday meals citing budget constraints, a Korea Times report stated. The ministry said in a statement that while donated items such as rice cakes and fruit may be accepted, the state will no longer provide festive menus on Chuseok or Lunar New Year.

In place of upgraded fare, both Seoul Detention Centre, where Mr Yoon is held, and Seoul Southern Detention Centre, where Ms Kim is confined, are serving what officials have described as “regular menus.”

Yoon was arrested in July on allegations including insurrection after attempting to declare martial law in December (Yonhap)

At Seoul Detention Centre, Mr Yoon’s Chuseok breakfast included a mini cheese bun, boiled egg, mixed nuts and soy milk; lunch was tofu udon soup, braised pork ribs, and napa cabbage kimchi; dinner will comprise beef-and-radish soup, braised mackerel kimchi, seasoned seaweed, and fermented milk.

Meanwhile at the Southern Detention Centre, Ms Kim’s breakfast was tofu kimchi soup with assorted side dishes, lunch was cheonggukjang (fermented soybean stew), fried eggs, and bibimbap (rice with vegetables, meat, and assorted sauces), and dinner included spicy beef soup, japchae (stir-fried glass noodles and vegetables), braised radish, and kimchi.

Former presidents detained over holidays have received more elaborate menus. Lee Myung Bak, convicted of bribery and embezzlement in 2018, was reported to have been served mango juice, yakgwa (honey cookies), and assorted snacks at Anyang Prison and Park Geun Hye, impeached in 2017 for corruption, also received holiday offerings while in custody at Seoul Detention Centre.

Mr Yoon and Ms Kim, both under trial on multiple charges, are the first former presidential couple in South Korea’s constitutional history to be undergoing legal proceedings while in detention.

Mr Yoon was arrested in July on allegations including insurrection after attempting to declare martial law in December, and Ms Kim was arrested in August on charges including bribery, stock manipulation, and political fund violations.

File photo. Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol sits with his wife Kim Keon Hee, during a visit to the Palace of Westminster on a 2023 state visit (Getty Images)

Justice minister Jung Sung Ho, speaking a day before the Chuseok holiday, sharply criticised the former president’s earlier comments about prison conditions, saying: “It is difficult to ‘survive’ in the detention centre, and the lawyers are complaining about meals at the detention centre.”

He added that it was “a very brazen and arrogant attitude to ask the detention centre to set up a two-room allocation and delivery app soon,” according to a Maeil Business Paper report.

Mr Jung was referring to Mr Yoon’s remarks during a court bail hearing on 26 September, when the former president complained that “it is difficult to survive in 1.8 pyeong (5.9sqm) of solitary confinement.”

Kim Byung Ki, the floor leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea, accused Mr Yoon of “pretending to be an unfair victim” and said it was “brazen” for someone “whose rebellion turned the country upside down” to complain about detention meals.

He added that public anger was growing over what he called “the rebellion monster’s complaints about rice,” saying, “Even cup noodles and hard bread are luxuries to such a man.”

Outside the prisons, detention centres are attempting to ameliorate the change by accepting charitable donations. At Seoul Detention Centre, rice cakes donated by non-governmental organisations were distributed, and apples, bananas and rice cakes are expected to be offered later in the week at the Southern Detention Centre.

Legal advocates for Ms Kim have issued a message via her lawyers: “Without your letters and support, I could not have endured this long, dark tunnelI hope you have a happy Chuseok holiday. I will always pray for you.”