South Korea’s opposition leader narrowly avoids arrest

Weakened by more than three weeks of subsisting on salt and water, Lee Jae-myung (pictured) hobbled into the courtroom in Seoul on a cane on September 26th. The leader of South Korea’s opposition Democratic Party (DP) had been on a hunger strike to protest against the country’s president, Yoon Suk-yeol, whom he charged with the “destruction of democracy”. Not coincidentally, he was summoned to court while a judge considered whether he could be arrested on corruption charges. After a nine-hour hearing, followed by several hours in a detention centre, Mr Lee was told he would not be arrested. Yet the damage this episode has done to his standing and his party’s could be profound.