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U.S. pledges public support for South Korea’s democracy, calling it ‘robust' and 'resilient’

Published: 05 Dec. 2024, 11:30

U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaking during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington on Nov. 13. [AFP/YONHAP]

The United States will continue to speak out "publicly" to strengthen the importance of South Korea's democracy, a senior White House official said Wednesday, portraying it as "robust" and "resilient."

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan made the remarks after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol abruptly declared martial law on Tuesday night and ended the decree hours later following the National Assembly's passage of a resolution to overturn it.

"What we want to see is just the proper functioning of the democratic institutions of the ROK and after this rather dramatic announcement that raised alarm bells everywhere, including here in Washington, we have seen those processes and procedures work," Sullivan said at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. ROK is short for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.

"South Korea's democracy is robust and resilient, and we're going to continue to speak out publicly and engage privately with South Korean counterparts to reinforce the importance of that continuing as we go forward."

Sullivan said that the United States learned about the martial law imposition from Yoon's announcement on TV, which he said raised "deep concern" for Washington.

"The National Assembly worked according to constitutional processes and procedures. The president retracted martial law," he said. "Now there's ... a series of procedures in place to kind of react to what happened there."

The development in Seoul appeared to have taken U.S. officials aback as it happened when President Joe Biden has championed democracy and touted progress with the deepening of the alliance with South Korea and trilateral cooperation with Japan as a key foreign policy feat during his term that ends next month.

Yonhap