What Yoon's martial law means for Korean democracy: Expert

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What Yoon's martial law means for Korean democracy: Expert

Published: 04 Dec. 2024, 16:49 Updated: 04 Dec. 2024, 17:05

LIM JEONG-WON
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Citizens and members of civic groups on Wednesady gather in front of the main gate of the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, condemning President Yoon Suk Yeol after the declaration of emergency martial law on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

With many arguing that President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law sets Korean democracy back and is another example of global democratic backsliding, experts caution that it will take time to assess how Korea’s overall democratic path and political stability will progress hereinafter.

Yoon declared emergency martial law on Tuesday at around 10:30 p.m., and six hours later, the National Assembly unanimously passed a resolution to lift it, ending the first martial law in 45 years within the course of one night.

Observers inside and outside Korea have decried Yoon’s move and voiced concerns over the democratic situation in the country. While it is too early to tell, historically, the positives outweigh the negatives for Korean democracy, according to experts.

“In a consolidated democracy — usually considered democracies that have withstood over three decades — like Korea, the fact that this has happened itself increases skepticism about the robustness of democratic regime,” said Song Wonjun, assistant professor of political science at Hanyang University. “However, considering that the constitutional crisis this year was peacefully overcome, that the military did not actively respond following the declaration of martial law and that both the ruling and opposition parties jointly passed the resolution to lift it are all positive indicators.”

What to watch out for in terms of determining the outlook for Korean democracy at this point is whether there will emerge political leaders who do not take this incident seriously and try to pass it over, and whether there were any intentional obstructions in the participation of the National Assembly vote that took place in the early hours of Wednesday, according to Song.

The nature of the military’s involvement in Tuesday to Wednesday’s martial law also poses implications, said Song.

“It seems that the majority of the Korean military, including commanders and actual troops, were not fully active in their roles and that actual mobilization was minimal,” Song observed. “The troops that had been dispatched to the National Assembly were sequentially withdrawn after the resolution to lift was passed. I think this is a positive signal in terms of civilian control and democratic norms.

“In order for the military to successfully intervene in domestic politics, either the military should believe that its corporate interests are severely threatened, or many personal loyalists should have been appointed as the commanders and mid-level officers of important units,” emphasized Song.

Song further pointed out that in light of these considerations of civil-military relations, Yoon’s decision-making process itself was very “perplexing.”

The people’s trust in public processes and the forces involved in the declaration of martial law will decline, while trust in government agencies and the military will likely change depending on subsequent legal rulings, punishments or institutional changes that may come.

Putting yesterday’s situation in Korea into the wider perspective of global democratic backsliding and autocratization, as this incident was not something that occurred gradually, it can be evaluated as something closer to a “self-coup” than anything else, said Song.

“While it is true that democratic backsliding or autocratization is occurring in some consolidated democracies, when we look at the data, such phenomenon usually occurs sequentially or incrementally in the form of attacks against judiciary independence, which was not the case in Korea this time,” said Song. “Ultimately, though positive and negative indicators exist simultaneously, the democratic path and political stability of Korea will proceed consistently.”

BY LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]