12/05/2024

After South Korea’s Martial Law Meltdown, Here's What Comes Next

This was a politically catastrophic decision

After stunning his country and the world by declaring martial law late Tuesday night—before lifting it hours later, after protests against military rule broke out and parliament stepped in to invalidate the move—South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol may not have much of a political future left.

Yoon, of the conservative People Power Party, was already a lame-duck President after the opposition Democratic Party won a legislative majority in elections earlier this year. His scandal-ridden five-year term was set to end in 2027. But now, opposition lawmakers are looking to impeach the leader if he doesn’t step down himself over the failed gambit that observers have described as an “inept semi-coup."

"This was a politically catastrophic decision," said Gi-Wook Shin, a sociology professor at Stanford University. Kang Won-taek, a political science professor at Seoul National University, believes Yoon is "politically cornered." Sean O’Malley, an international studies professor at Dongseo University in Busan, said that Yoon is unlikely to resign but that his presidency is "effectively dead" already, whether or not he is removed from office.

Please select this link to read the complete article from TIME.