Lessons from South Korea’s martial law crisis : NPR

SEOUL, South Korea — Greater than a month after South Korea’s now-impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, declared martial law, the nation stays deep in political disaster.

The one-month mark for the reason that Dec. 3 martial legislation decree got here simply forward of Monday’s fourth anniversary of the assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021. Analysts are analyzing each cases — nonetheless totally different — as examples of self-inflicted wounds to democracy, and mining them for classes about learn how to stop them from recurring.

Challenges to democracy in South Korea and the U.S.

The South Korean and U.S. examples have clear variations. The assault on the U.S. Capitol 4 years in the past was an try to overturn election outcomes. Yoon’s martial legislation decree was geared toward breaking the resistance of an opposition-controlled parliament.

However “the important function of the motion is comparable,” argues Aurel Croissant, a political scientist at Heidelberg College in Germany. He says each moments have been makes an attempt by a sitting govt “to stop one other department of presidency from performing its constitutional duties and holding the federal government accountable.”

Political scientists name this a “self-coup.”

“The South Korean declaration of martial legislation is a textbook instance of such a self-coup,” says Croissant, and lots of see the Jan. 6 rebellion in the US as one, too.

For a lot of South Koreans, their expertise naturally raises comparisons with the U.S. Capitol assault. That features impeached President Yoon, who argued that he ought to get pleasure from the identical absolute immunity from legal prosecution for his official acts that the Supreme Court confirmed for U.S. presidents final 12 months.

South Korean legislation does certainly grant presidents immunity from prosecution, except for prices of rebellion or treason. Yoon is being charged with rebellion.

At a press convention in Seoul on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “We had critical considerations about among the actions that President Yoon took and we communicated these on to the federal government.”

However, he mentioned, “We’ve great confidence within the resilience of South Korea’s democracy,” whose establishments, the U.S. has argued, have held agency.

Resistance to self-coups vs. resilience

Croissant argues that if South Korea’s establishments had held, Yoon wouldn’t have been capable of declare martial legislation, even for a number of hours.

“South Korean’s democracy is powerful in reacting to disaster,” he says, “however it’s very weak in stopping disaster.”

Whereas South Korean legislation requires the president to notify parliament of a declaration of martial legislation, and parliament can demand that the president cancel the declaration, parliament has no energy to veto it.

A part of the issue lies in the best way South Korea’s political system was designed and constructed, says Seoul Nationwide College political scientist Kang Won-taek.

“The core of Korea’s democratization thus far,” he explains, “has been centered on holding truthful and democratic elections for president.”

Kang argues that the system has reached its limits, and among the president’s powers now have to be redistributed. A debate on this subject has been happening for some years.

The “muscle” behind self-coups

One more reason Yoon’s self-coup failed is that the navy balked at utilizing drive to impose martial legislation.

One think about that, Kang says, is the occasions of Might 1980, when South Korea’s then-ruling navy junta sent troops to crush pro-democracy protests within the metropolis of Gwangju, killing round 200 civilians. “The troopers felt extraordinarily ashamed after witnessing the incident in Gwangju,” he says.

South Korean writer Han Kang received the Nobel Prize in literature final 12 months for books together with Human Acts, which handled the trauma of Gwangju.

In South Korea’s parliament final month, opposition ground chief Park Chan-dae mentioned two of the questions Han raises about Gwangju: “Can the previous assist the current?” and “Can the lifeless save the residing?”

“As I expertise the civil strife of the Dec. 3 martial legislation decree,” he mentioned, “I want to reply ‘sure’ to the query, ‘Can the previous assist the current?’ As a result of Might 1980 saved December 2024.”

Croissant, the political scientist in Germany, argues that as a result of leaders who stage self-coups usually require the use or the specter of drive to realize their goals, lawmakers should strictly oversee militaries and safety apparatuses to see that they adhere to the structure.

The final line of protection

On the finish of the day, Croissant factors out that South Korea and the U.S. are each consultant democracies, the place folks choose representatives to manipulate for them. When the representatives fail, he provides, residents should mobilize to guard their rights themselves.

“Civil society is the final line of protection for democracy,” Croissant says, citing Daron Acemoglu, a Nobel Prize winner in economics.

South Koreans have been mobilizing for over 100 years, Croissant provides, studying classes from 35 years of Japanese colonial occupation and greater than 25 years of navy dictatorships.

NPR’s Se Eun Gong contributed to this report in Seoul.