A botched attempt to impose martial law has backfired on Yoon Suk Yeol, who now faces the threat of impeachment
Members of Korean Confederation of Trade Unions during a demonstration in Seoul on Wednesday calling for the dismissal and impeachment of the South Korean president in Seoul. Yesterday his whole cabinet, most of them completely blindsided by the president’s move, was offering its resignation, although first in line to go, defence minister Kim Yong-hyun, had proposed the declaration of martial law.
In the history of martial law regimes, Tuesday’s six-hour coup must rank with the briefest ever. But, although its reversal is testimony to the robustness of the country’s democracy, for many startled South Koreans the sight of troops trying to take over the national assembly was a sharp reminder of the country’s relatively recent history of military rule which lasted to the late 1980s. In 1980 a particularly brutal crackdown in Gwangju is alleged to have killed hundreds.
Tuesday’s spontaneous protests throughout the country, demanding not only the end to martial rule but Yoon’s resignation, demonstrated how out of touch the deeply unpopular president has become.Christmas gift ideas: 100 Irish websites to get your shopping sorted Yoon, a 63-year-old former prosecutor, took office in 2022 by the narrowest of majorities. His party is a minority in parliament facing uphill battles, often unsuccessful, to pass legislation and budgets. His attempt to tar the liberal opposition Democratic Party along with the North Korean regime as justification for military rule, is taken with a pinch of salt by a population well-used to such claims.
Whether an attempted “insurrection”, as the opposition claims, or , as one Korean political scientist put it, an act of “political suicide”, Yoon’s brief attempt to write a new chapter in Korea’s history seems likely to be consigned to its footnotes.Australia offers me a more dignified life than the one I had in Ireland.
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