South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s surprise declaration of martial law was an “extreme action” likely motivated by his frustration with the political impasse, George Washington University professor Celeste Arrington told Reuters on Tuesday ( 3).
Yoon said this Wednesday (4), local time, that he suspended the measure, after Parliament and the cabinet voted to revoke it.
Arrington noted that Yoon is an inexperienced politician who has been at odds with Parliament, which is controlled by the opposition.
The was clearly inappropriate under the South Korean Constitution, according to the professor.
“In the Constitution, you can only declare Martial Law in extreme cases of national emergency or, you know, like wartime or a military incident or necessity. And, therefore, this is clearly not a context that fits these criteria”, pointed out the expert.
Yoon declared Martial Law this Tuesday, justifying that he was acting against “anti-state forces” among his opponents. , while protesters face the country’s biggest political crisis in decades.
The head of state’s surprise statement, which he called aimed at his political enemies, was unanimously rejected by 190 lawmakers in Parliament. Under South Korean law, Martial Law if Parliament requires it.
The crisis in a country that has been a democracy since the 1980s, a US ally and a major Asian economy, has caused international alarm.
“ in East Asia. And so the Seoul-Washington relationship is critical to countering the North Korean threat, Chinese aggression and, more recently, the closer ties between North Korea and Russia,” Arrington highlighted.
“Therefore, the instability in Seoul, the political crisis that President Yoon has triggered with this declaration of Martial Law is potentially detrimental to the Biden administration’s interest in promoting alliance architecture in Northeast Asia,” he added.
The United States said on Tuesday that it was observing events in ally South Korea with “grave concern”, stressing that it hoped the crisis would be resolved peacefully in accordance with the rule of law.
