South Korea avoids a return to the bad old days

North Korea is a dictatorship and South Korea is a democracy. This is one of the basic elements of conventional wisdom in modern geopolitics. But it wasn’t always this way. From its independence in 1945 until its final democratization in 1987, South Korea suffered from a series of coups and military dictatorships.

Tuesday night, the ghosts of the bad old days returned. President Yoon Suk Yeol, facing corruption investigations and impasses in the National Assembly, declared martial law, banning all political activity and independent media. Soldiers stormed the Assembly building as protesters attacked them with fire extinguishers.

Hours later, Yoon lifted martial law after his own party and the National Assembly voted unanimously to end military rule. It is the latest in a series of caricatured and clumsy coup attempts that have failed in recent years. Democratic Republic of Congo, Bolivia, Peru, Russia, Braziland elsewhere.

The attempted military takeover collapsed shortly after its launch. In defiance of military orders, 190 members of the National Assembly managed to enter the building. All voted to end martial law – according to South Korean law, the president must respect such a vote – and the soldiers withdrew from the building.

Yoon justified military rule by calling his opponents North Korean stooges. “I declare a state of emergency in order to protect the constitutional order based on freedom and eradicate the shameful pro-North Korea anti-state groups that are stealing the freedom and happiness of our people,” Yoon said . said on the YTN television channel.

The opposition called Yoon’s decision blatantly unconstitutional coup attempt. “Tanks, armored personnel carriers and soldiers armed with guns and knives will rule the country. The economy of the Republic of Korea will collapse beyond repair,” said opposition leader Lee Jae-myung in a statement. live broadcast. “My fellow citizens, come to the National Assembly.”

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the country’s second-largest workers’ association, declared “an indefinite general strike until the resignation of the Yoon government.” In its statement, the confederation cited the military coups of 1961 and 1979.

After decades of violent transitions of power, South Korea finally became a democracy following the June Democratic Struggle, a mass uprising in June 1987 that forced military dictator Chun Doo-hwan to agree to direct presidential elections and a new constitution.

In recent months, power in South Korea has been divided between Yoon, a member of the right-wing People Power Party, and the left-wing Democratic Party, which controls the National Assembly. The day before the military took power, Democratic Party lawmakers voted to cut the government budget of 4 trillion won ($2.82 billion) against Yoon’s wishes.

The declaration of martial law appears to have been a long-term attempt by Yoon to break the impasse. But it may have backfired on us. The attempted power grab “could very well run counter to Yoon’s alleged intention to safeguard his power, potentially pushing South Korean public opinion toward greater support for impeachment,” writing James Park in Responsible governmentwhere I was a journalist.

South Korea’s main military supporter, the United States, has made no commitments throughout the crisis. Asked about the standoff in the National Assembly, US State Department officials gave a series of vague non-answers.

“Unfortunately, Washington has long tolerated authoritarian behavior in South Korea, especially when the government in Seoul is right-wing, for the sake of cohesion against the North Korean threat,” said Eric Gomez, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, in a statement in front of Yoon. ended martial law.

However, Gomez emphasized that “the democratization of South Korea has led to massive improvements in personal and economic freedom, the general well-being of South Koreans, and Seoul’s self-defense against North Korean attacks.” .

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