Lawmakers could vote as soon as Friday to impeach South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for his desperate attempt to declare martial law yesterday. Just a few hours after Yoon made the surprise declaration, lawmakers voted unanimously to strike it down, requiring him to retract it, which he did. (Washington Post)
While Yoon’s declaration of martial law surprised virtually everyone, the dynamics that drove him to take such a desperate and ultimately ill-fated gamble have been on prominent display for months. Yoon has had an acrimonious relationship with the opposition-controlled parliament ever since he took office. Those tensions have only heightened since his People’s Power Party, or PPP, fared poorly in legislative elections in April that were widely seen as a referendum on Yoon’s leadership.
Indeed, the Democratic Party, or DP, won that vote largely by emphasizing Yoon’s unpopularity, with his approval rating falling below 40 percent before the election and plummeting afterward. As Joel Atkinson wrote in April, Yoon’s opponents capitalized on a series of incidents that made the president appear incompetent, out of touch and stubborn, as well as a scandal involving the first lady’s acceptance of a Dior bag as a gift.
The run-up to that vote also highlighted many of the broader dysfunctions plaguing South Korea’s political landscape. Politics in the country has been deeply polarized for years, a problem that has only worsened recently, with the two main parties now outright demonizing each other and refusing to cooperate on even uncontroversial issues. Politically paralyzed as a result, Yoon dug in his heels, even as the opposition continued to block his agenda, called for investigations of his wife and threatened to impeach members of his Cabinet. Things reached the boiling point, at least from Yoon’s clearly misguided perspective, this week.
Still, the response to Yoon’s power grab—for all intents and purposes, an attempted self-coup—suggests that while South Korea’s political landscape may have its problems, the country’s commitment to democracy remains ironclad. Immediately after Yoon’s declaration, thousands of people gathered to protest outside the National Assembly, and lawmakers voted unanimously to retract the martial law declaration, forcing Yoon to follow suit. The response speaks to South Korea’s recent cultural memory of military dictatorship and autocratic rule, which only came to an end in the late 1980s.
Looking ahead, the episode could have significant implications for South Korea’s foreign policy. Yoon has doubled down on Seoul’s alliance with Washington and sought stronger ties with Tokyo, despite historical grievances dating back to Japan’s occupation of the Korean peninsula. Notably, the impeachment motion filed against Yoon specifically lists this foreign policy trajectory as a grievance, arguing that Yoon has been too confrontational with China and North Korea. As a result, if Yoon’s presidency does end with impeachment, his successor could find it difficult to continue with Seoul’s current foreign policy orientation.
Of course, foreign policy is likely not on Yoon’s mind right now. His immediate concern, and that of South Korean observers, is whether or not he keeps his job.
