Yoon does not want to lose power, writes Kiji Noh, but more importantly the U.S. cannot allow Yoon to lose power. He is key to the Asian force posture against China.
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol visits the Navy Special Warfare Flotilla in Jinhae, Gyeongsangnam-do Province, on March 10, 2023. (Republic of Korea, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
By Kiji Noh
Special to Consortium News
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law, suspended the South Korean legislature and banned elected representatives from accessing the National Assembly building using massive police presence.
And then six hours later he rescinded the order.
President Yoon had declared in a public address to the Korean people that the move was to protect a “liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and to eliminate anti-state elements.” He said:
“I will restore the country to normalcy by getting rid of anti-state forces as soon as possible.”
But all the members of South Korea’s National Assembly, which Yoon had shut down, voted to reverse Yoon’s edict Tuesday and he then heeded the call.
The action and rhetoric had evoked the days of the country’s military dictatorships; the language and justification was exactly the same.
There had been repeated signals that Yoon could declare martial law because the public momentum to impeach him in South Korea was gaining ground.
Yoon is despised by South Koreans for his abuse of power, his wife’s corruption and his vitiation of South Korea’s sovereignty and economic wellbeing to serve U.S. geopolitical interests.
Particularly triggering and enraging for South Koreans has been his enmeshing of South Korea’s military with that of its former colonizer, Japan, through a formal military alliance designed to wage war against China. This has also entailed engaging in radical historical revisionism and erasure to facilitate this extraordinary coalition.
Last week 100,000 citizens protested in the streets demanding his immediate resignation — something that received absolutely zero coverage in Western media. There was still little mention of this in current mainstream Western coverage as a factor for the short-lived declaration of martial law.
Yoon does not want to lose power, but more importantly the U.S. cannot allow Yoon to lose power: He is essential to shore up alliances, agreements, and an Asian force posture to wage war against China.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks during Yoon’s arrival ceremony in Washington, April 2023. (White House, Erin Scott)
If Yoon goes, the forcefield breaks. This is because South Korea is the key proxy, the proxy with the largest military force in the area (500,000 active troops plus 3.1 million reservists). This massive military manpower falls immediately under U.S. operational control, the moment the U.S. decides it wants to wage war.
Yoon, who was elected with the narrowest electoral victory in Korean history (0.7 percent), is a U.S. client, supported precisely for making promises of implementing a South Korean “Indo-Pacific strategy,” a clone of the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy, a belligerent, escalatory, military-hybrid strategy to encircle and take down China.
When Yoon was elected, champagne corks flew in Washington. If Yoon had chosen to perpetuate rule through martial law, the U.S. would have likely closed their eyes to it, as they did for decades under Park Chung Hee and Chun Doo Hwan. The stakes are very high.
However, unlike his Conservative Party predecessors Park Chung Hee, Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo, Yoon is not a former general. In fact, he is a draft dodger, something that usually destroys political careers.
The fact that he was able to rise to the highest office signals that extraordinarily powerful forces (like the U.S. national security state) were instrumental in his ascension to power.
Certainly, they gave him prime time coverage, including access to the most influential media platform in the world: a cover article in Foreign Affairs magazine where he professed his allegiance to U.S. doctrine.
Dangerous and dark times still lie ahead, especially if Koreans rise up (as they always have) and President Yoon responds with massive military and police repression.
K.J. Noh is a political analyst, educator and journalist focusing on the geopolitics and political economy of the Asia-Pacific. He has written for Dissident Voice, Black Agenda Report, Asia Times, Counterpunch, LA Progressive, MR Online. He also does frequent commentary and analysis on various news programs, including The Critical Hour, The Backstory, and Breakthrough News.
Views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
U.S. support for authoritarians in South Korea goes back to Syngman Rhee, president of its first republic, who ruled with an iron fist.
I understand that the drive to impeach him has, for unknown reasons, suddenly been reversed. Interesting.
Thanks, Kiji Noh , and Consortium News, for this brief yet incisive report. As the article notes, we in the West wouldn’t otherwise get any honest reporting or analysis of this significant event, because any such coverage would, as in so many other instances, divulge the extent of American imperialism and war-mongering.
So sad.
Similar stories in: Japan, Germany, Libya, Lebanon, etc. etc.
This must have embarrassed the US government. All their warnings about North Korea and what Kim Jong Un will do but it was their own ally South Korea which imposed martial law. That’s why they’re keeping a lid on this in the west. It exposes US belligerence.
So now we know why there are so many abysmal leaders in Western countries throughout the world, because this is the only kind of leader that the US empire allows. And these puppet leaders are the only kind of lick-spittle creatures that are willing to sell out their own country and peoples for the sake of some US status and gold. As we can see in the cases of ROC, Japan and the EU, they are dredged from the bottom of the barrel.
Exactly. These “leaders” arrive bought and paid for by psychocapitalism and the war machine.
Democracy itself has been proved an illusion. Even their own political processes are heads-we-win-tails-you-lose.
See France, where King Manny and his minions hold court. Or UK with their austerity slaughter, mass poverty and citizen abuse. Or Germany with their Israel-first law on arts funding. Or….or…..or…
And of course Israel and the US with their bipartisan genocide. Openly murdering hundreds of thousands of people with utter impunity. The most disgusting, inhuman act in generations.
All against the will of the people. All in complete opposition to the majority, even with the accompanying perpetual propaganda.
UN, international law, mainstream media, almost all political parties – dead in the water. They will never be respected again.
We know who the enemy is now.
South Korea is another pseudo democratic puppet state of the United States Empire.
Clear and concise summary! U.S. imperialism wreaking havoc all over the planet as usual. Where is the No War on China campaign? U.S. ruling class wake up and do an analysis of the global correlation of forces. Long past time for diplomacy and coming to terms with history. The world will not allow Europe and its colonial powers to dominate. A new world is emerging out of the darkness.
Over the past year or so I began to wonder why “South Koreans” has seemed so willing to face off with China and to accept American arms. Couldn’t imagine how it might benefit them. Now we can all see why this has been going on. Isn’t it funny how the media always says “the government” when it refers to leaders in power. The actual government is out there in the streets. These elected creatures–like our Biden–are in NO WAY the government. The people are. Drain the swamp!
Many thanks for telling this breaking story. So far, no one else has.
I have immense respect for the Korean people. Quite apart from their formidable capabilities in the “hard” sectors (military prowess, technical / industrial / economic achievements), their soft power has skyrocketed on the world stage, not just with the somewhat formulaic Kpop culture, which has prompted many Westerners to learn Korean, but more importantly in the cinematic field with masterpieces like ‘Parasite’ and ‘Squid game’ which are critiques of the unfairness and injustice of neoliberal economic enslavement. Not to mention this year’s Nobel laureate in literature Han Kang. Journalist KJ Noh continues this pattern of excellence with his insightful analyses of world events, often with a witty take.
I also recommend the works of economist Ha Joon Chang (formerly of Cambridge University) a counterweight to the neoliberal economic conartists.
China is lagging far behind in matters of soft power and has a lot to learn from the Koreans.