Update: 7:54am PST, December 14, 2024 –According to the AP, President Yoon has been impeached by the National Assembly. The powers of the presidency have been transferred to Prime Minister Han Duck-Soo. The constitutional court will have 180 days to rule on Yoon’s impeachment.
What the hell is happening in South Korea? It has been just over a week since South Korea experienced an emergency declaration of martial law, troops in the national assembly building, massive protests, and a failed impeachment of the president. The opposition has now vowed to introduce impeachment bills every Saturday until Yoon’s removal from office. Yoon’s own party has even come out and said that the president will not have any role in state affairs moving forward. The South Korean people have now flooded the streets demanding Yoon’s impeachment. What is going on? What’s happened?
First a little catch up, late into the night on Tuesday, South Korean President declared an emergency martial law following the passing of a controversial budget. This declaration shocked the world. Memories of 1980 flooded the mind of South Koreans leading to thousands flooding the capital region. The western media has been calling this a failed or botched coup attempt by Yoon, but I argue that while these events can be defined as a coup, defining Yoon’s actions as such limits our ability to analyze and understand the situation. Yoon’s declaration of martial law can be better understood as the culmination of a massive political fight between the major parties in South Korean politics. This feeble coup attempt was not a despot attempting to wrestle control away from the people, rather a frustrated President who perceived to be backed into a political corner and chose to fight. To understand why martial law was such a jarring and motivating event for South Koreans, we must look at the actions of the past.
Historical Context
Following the Korean War, South Korea was led by Sygman Rhee. Rhee would eventually be forced out of office by public protests that would be known as the April Revolution. During the revolution Rhee declared martial law, attempting to end the protests through violent suppression. The regime would kill over 150 demonstrators before Rhee was ousted.
Following the April Revolution, Park Chunghee would come to power. Park is best known for modernizing the South Korean economy. But Park would also go on to declare martial law in 1971, leading to the Yushin constitution. Park would eventually be assassinated and Chun Doo Hwan would take over in a coup of his own. It was in 1980 that students in Gwangju would step up and lead the resistance to the new military regime. Chun responded by sending troops to the region to attempt to suppress the protests. The violent suppression of these protests would lead to over 1000 people dead, and thousands more injured. Resistance to the military regime would continue until Chun caved to pressures in 1987, starting the country’s transition to democracy. It was in 1987 that Lee Han Yeol, a student protester, would be hit with a tier gas canister. It was an injury that Lee would never recover from. Lee’s death sparked the protest movement that would lead to the democratic transition and political system in South Korea today.
It can be easy to forget the passion for democracy that burns in South Korea. The country has been economically successful and relatively stable. Amidst the success, the world may have forgotten the difficult and blood stained road South Korea has taken, but the citizens of South Korea will never forget their sacrifices.
Yoon Declares Martial Law
This passion was once again reignited late Tuesday night. Understanding the deeper history of South Korean democracy can help explain the fervent protests in the streets of Seoul that are ongoing. Western media has quickly and tightly latched on to the turmoil in Seoul. Yoon and South Korea have received the most press coverage since the era of summit diplomacy with North Korea. For the most part the media has done an adequate job covering the martial law declaration and subsequent reactions. However, characterizing these events as a coup d’teat removes the nuance and deeper understanding of the situation. While Yoon’s actions do constitute a coup attempt, we need to take a deeper look as to what has been going on in South Korean politics. We have covered
South Korea has become an increasingly polarized society. This drastic polarization is evident in the outcome of the 2022 presidential election. Yoon won this election with only a 0.8% margin. Only 3 months into his presidency, Yoon’s approval rating plummeted to a low of 37%. This was a dramatic fall from grace extremely early into his presidency, this cliff would foreshadow the rest of his presidency. High inflation, the Hongdae Crowd Crush, the death of a marine, major labor strikes, and scandals surrounding the first lady continued to weigh on his already low approval ratings. This led to Yoon’s party losing a majority in the national assembly. The PPP would hang on by a thread, losing the overall majority but maintaining just enough seats to prevent a ⅔ majority for the opposition. This drastically shifted the balance of power, the president became hamstrung, unable to pass any piece of his agenda. The president and the opposition party have been exchanging political blows in various arenas, including the impeachment of Yoon’s allies in the judiciary and prosecutors’ office. But it was the passage of a budget Yoon had vetoed that caused the president to snap and declare martial law.
The context of Yoon’s political battles is key to understanding the situation, but the declaration itself can be illuminating. It is in the full text of the declaration we can see the true source of Yoon’s frustration. The speech has a clear first and second half. The declaration of martial law alludes to the role of “anti-state actors” that are paralyzing the government, however it takes Yoon some time to even mention North Korea. He spends the first half of the declaration railing against the National Assembly and their attempts to weaken his position as president, citing the 22 impeachment motions against various government officials since his inauguration. He then continues on to discuss the budget that prompted him to declare martial law.
The Democratic Party of Korea has slashed 1 trillion won ($700 million) from the disaster countermeasures reserve fund, 38.4 billion won from child care support allowances, and 4.1 trillion won from projects such as youth employment initiatives and deep-sea gas field development in next year’s budget….This budgetary tyranny is, in a word, a mockery of the Republic of Korea’s national finances.
From the outset, Yoon was focused on the acts of the national Assembly. It is clear he is frustrated with how hamstrung his administration became after the midterms. Most Koreans – and people from around the world – knew that this declaration had nothing to do with North Korea. Yoon has clearly let his frustration boil over, in such an egregious fashion it will cost him his presidency. Yoon’s contempt for the National Assembly members and the opposition were thrust into the public consciousness when new reports came out detailing Yoon’s orders to arrest opposition political leaders during his short lived martial law. At the time of writing the decision to attempt to arrest political opponents are only allegations. These allegations were first brought by opposition leaders and are currently under investigation. Martial law brings imagines of tanks rolling down the streets, strict curfews, and a severe crackdown on civil liberties. Yoon’s short lived martial law did not seem to share any of the characteristics from previous episodes in Korean history. Yoon clearly was not trying to cause a massive upheaval, overthrow the Constitution, or the judiciary. He, illegally, targeted those he saw as a hindrance to his administration.
Yoon’s actions are only the spark that lit the fireworks. The polarization and a deeply divided society are the powder keg that Yoon lit. His actions on December 3rd were extremely dangerous, and his attitude since demonstrates how precarious of a position South Korea find itself. Labeling Yoon’s antics as a coup glosses over how we have got here. Yoon needs to be removed from office, but this cannot end there. South Korea, like many states at this moment, needs to look beyond this martial law declaration and attempt to heal the deep divisions within the society.