South Korean Presidet Yoon Suk Yeol
Seoul/Washington: In dramatic developments that unfolded in the last 24 hours in South Korea, President Yoon Suk Yeol declared emergency martial law but said he would rescind his order after the Korean National Assembly unanimously voted to reject his order just after two hours of its declaration on December 3, 2024.
The Opposition-led coalition of six political parties including the main opposition Democratic Party thereafter tabled a motion for Yoon’s impeachment in the National Assembly.
Already Yoon was relegated to a lame-duck President after his People Power Party was defeated by the opposition Democratic Party in the parliamentary election in April 2024. (The President of South Korea is directly elected for a single five-year term by plurality vote, where the people vote in a single round for their favoured candidate and the candidate who obtains the largest vote tally is elected to office. South Korea holds elections for the 300 members of the country’s National Assembly every four years).
Yoon’s decision to declare an emergency took everyone by surprise. Even one of the closest associates of South Korea, the United States of America, was caught unawares. All that the US State Department said today (IST) was it was not notified in advance. The South Korean President made the declaration in an unannounced television address, where he accused the Opposition parties of “sympathising with North Korea” and “paralysing the government with anti-state activities.” The US, however, claimed it had no threat assessments, or analysis to offer as it related to North Korea in the context of this.
Soon after the imposition of martial law by Yoon, the US State Department got into action and engaged its South Korean counterparts at every level both in Seoul and Washington. The Americans were “gravely” concerned over the “incredibly fluid situation” in Seoul and although the US State Department claimed it had no conversations to read out with President Yoon, it hinted the US did ask Yoon to resolve the political disputes peacefully and under the rule of law, since the US sees South Korea along with Japan as a vital partners in the Indo-Pacific and thus envisages a broader strategic relationship with Seoul.
While the US ambassador to South Korea put out a statement on X encouraging American citizens in South Korea to monitor local news sources, Washington emphasised that its alliance with Seoul was “ironclad”, and hoped that the nation’s laws and regulations were abided by South Korea.
The United States made it clear to Yoon that it wanted the crisis to be resolved peacefully as per the rule of law, and that “certainly the legislature voting to pass something would be consistent with the law of that country”.
US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said he watched closely developments over the last 24 hours in South Korea. “We welcome President Yoon’s statement that he would rescind the order declaring emergency martial law in accordance with the ROK [Republic of Korea or South Korea] Constitution, after the National Assembly’s unanimous vote to reject the declaration,” he said.
When asked whether the US saw Yoon’s moves as basically a political dispute within South Korea, a US State Department spokesperson said it was not for the US to characterize this. “What we are attempting to do is continue to gather the facts and continue to gather the circumstances of what’s happening on the ground; engage appropriately with our counterparts both here in the United States and at Seoul; and then monitor and make appropriate adjustments, if needed, as it relates to our personnel and our citizens, which, again, at this point we’ve not done, but we’ve – I’ve outlined a number of ways in which U.S. citizens can engage with us,” the spokesperson said.
While reaffirming the US support for the people of Korea and the U.S.-ROK alliance based on shared principles of democracy and the rule of law, Blinken said the US will continue to expect political disagreements to be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law in South Korea.
– global bihari bureau
