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Who will end Korea’s ‘non-politics’ era?

Published: 08 Apr. 2025, 00:02

Choi Min-woo

The author is the head of the political news department at the JoongAng Ilbo.

In late March, just days before the Constitutional Court announced the date for ruling on President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment, Korea teetered on the edge of political paralysis. The Democratic Party of Korea (DP), emboldened and embattled in equal measure, threatened to impeach Acting President Han Duck-soo if he failed to appoint Ma Eun-hyeok as a Constitutional Court justice by April 1. Han had only recently returned to office after the Court had rejected an earlier impeachment motion against him.

Acting president Han Duck-soo vows after addressing the public at the Seoul government complex on March 24 after impeachment motion against him has been dismissed earlier that day. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

There was even talk of a “double impeachment,” targeting both Han and Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, whose own impeachment was already underway. On March 28, a group of first-term DP lawmakers, known collectively as “The Mincho,” held a press conference in the National Assembly, declaring that any acting cabinet member who refused to appoint Ma would be impeached without hesitation. Their message was as blunt as it was dangerous: political instability was a price they were willing to pay.

The Constitutional Court’s announcement of an April 4 ruling date defused the immediate threat. But had the Court delayed its decision, would the DP really have followed through? Would a party vying for power risk throwing the government into chaos?

One senior party figure offered a cynical justification: “We’ve been living in a state of non-politics. What difference would a state of anarchy really make?”

That sentiment, however flippant, captured something essential about the Yoon administration. Over his three years in office, Yoon presided over what many have come to see as a vacuum of politics — an era not of misgovernment, but of non-government.

Yoon, a former prosecutor with little patience for compromise, often appeared to scorn the give-and-take of democratic politics. He distanced himself not only from the opposition but from members of his own party. After the ruling party’s defeat in last year’s general election, a senior official close to Yoon offered this assessment: “He refuses to operate in gray areas or seek political trades. He believes deeply that his job is to fulfill the mandate of those who elected him, no matter the cost — even if it means facing impeachment. To him, opposition leaders like Lee Jae-myung and Cho Kuk are not political adversaries but criminals. He sees no need for dialogue with them.”

That antagonism reached its bleak conclusion with Yoon’s final act in office: the unprecedented declaration of martial law on Dec. 3.

Yet the DP’s record over these same three years offers little in the way of contrast. During Yoon’s presidency, the party filed 30 impeachment motions, 13 of which it passed unilaterally. Of the 10 that reached the Constitutional Court (excluding Yoon’s), nine were dismissed. The DP also pushed through 41 bills that were later vetoed by the president — every one of them passed without bipartisan support. Since last year’s election, the party has grown even more forceful. In just nine months, it pushed through 117 committee votes with its majority, far surpassing the totals from previous National Assemblies.

The roots of this dysfunction run deep. Korea's modern political history, shaped by authoritarianism and sudden democratic transition, has never fully shed the legacy of factional strife. The concept of being “political” still carries a whiff of conspiracy and corruption.

In recent decades, politics in Korea has been battered by crisis: the suicide of Roh Moo-hyun, the impeachment of Park Geun-hye, and the prosecutorial purges under former Moon Jae-in — all former presidents. But it is the past three years — defined by mutual refusal, institutional brinkmanship, and the total breakdown of dialogue — that have brought Korea to its current impasse.

The Constitutional Court’s ruling that removed Yoon from office included an unusual admonition. It called on the National Assembly to “respect minority opinions” and to exercise “tolerance, restraint, dialogue, and compromise” in dealing with the executive branch. It was, in effect, a warning to both sides: politics, if it is to function, must begin again.

That is the challenge now facing the country as it heads into the June 3 presidential election.

The Constitutional Court upholds the National Assembly's decision to impeach former president Yoon Suk Yeol on April 4. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

The question is no longer just about who will govern, but how they intend to govern. Can Korea rediscover a politics that does not see disagreement as treason? Can it accept that opponents are not enemies to be eliminated but counterparts to be heard?

The past three years have shown what happens when politics disappears. It’s time now to bring it back.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.