The Madman of Seoul and the Outside World Part 2/2
Democracy dies of stupidity and CIA meddling
This is Part 2 of a 2 part series on the South Korean Crisis. For part 1:
Yoon Destroys Unification
Yoon has proved to be an obsequious lapdog of the US, consistently toeing the US line on every issue of consequence no matter how unpopular such a decision was back home. Yoon has been strongly lauded by the US, with US president Joe Biden praising him and their shared “democratic values", and US Deputy Secretary of State and China hawk Kurt Campbell even stating that Yoon should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.[1] Yoon pursued a policy of aggressive hostility towards the DPRK, a marked contrast to his predecessor Moon Jae-in who not only met with North Korean President Kim Jong Un himself at the DMZ, but arranged for meetings between Kim and US President Donald Trump.[2] Moon’s Sunshine Policy led to decreased tensions on the Korean peninsula, which naturally decreased the ROK’s need for the US, an unacceptable state of affairs for Washington. Yoon’s saber rattling and acts of hostility led not only to heightened tensions between the DPRK and ROK, but the formal renunciation of peaceful reunification as a goal by the DPRK.[3] Yoon also was a vigorous cheerleader for the US proxy war in Ukraine, providing massive military and nonmilitary aid to the Ukrainian govt and signing contracts to provide enormous amounts of military equipment to Poland to replace the equipment they have sent to the Ukrainian army.[4] Russia has responded by elevating relations with the DPRK, and the two countries have signed major agreements expanding and elevating their areas of cooperation following state visits between Putin and Kim Jong Un. The Yoon administration has responded to this by beginning a lie campaign, supported by the Western media, Ukraine, and the Pentagon, about supposed KPA troops fighting for Russia in Ukraine, something for which they have not presented any real evidence.[5] This increased hostility towards the DPRK also has had major domestic implications that will be covered later.
His Master’s Colonial Voice
The centerpiece of Yoon’s foreign policy though has been his rapprochement with Japan. South Korea and Japan have long been the US’s top vassals in East Asia, but their unwillingness to work with each other on military issues has proven a hurdle for the US. The South Korean public and some of the military elite is wary of an increasingly remilitarized Japan, seeing it as a potential threat to Korea. The bloody legacy of previous Japanese imperialism also remains a live issue, as the Japanese Empire conscripted Koreans in general for forced labor and Korean women as sex slaves (“comfort women”). Koreans and their governments both north and south have demanded reparations and apologies for these crimes, which Japan has consistently refused to give. Japan’s unilateral dumping of radioactive wastewater from its Fukushima nuclear disaster didn’t endear it to anyone in East Asia either, especially South Korea given its geographical proximity.[6] All this changed after Yoon assumed office. Yoon kowtowed to Japan by dropping South Korean demands for reparations, began efforts to rewrite Korean history in a pro Japan light, and was willing to force the ROK military to cooperate with the Japanese Self Defense Force in nationally humiliating fashion. His massive and unrequited concessions to Japan allowed the signing of a US-Japan-South Korea trilateral agreement/alliance aimed squarely at China. If implemented, these agreements would make it difficult if not impossible for South Korea to be uninvolved in a US war against China, as US bases on Okinawa are sure to be in Chinese crosshairs and such an agreement would force South Korea to help defend them.[7] The ROK military could then directly serve a similar role to the one it did for the US in Vietnam, expendable foreign meatbags to allow the US to demand less of its own population and reduce the rather unpopular flow of boxes draped in the stars and stripes, while South Korea itself would offer its infrastructure and population as a helpful sponge to hopefully reduce the mammoth PLA missile arsenal.
A Coup of Errors
All of this led to consistently negative approvals for Yoon, with much of his tenure being spent in the 20s and 30s. Discontent with the Yoon administration and his party led to a disastrous parliamentary election result for the PPP in the April 2024 midterms, with the opposition Democratic Party maintaining a firm majority in parliament, making Yoon a lame duck.[8] On the night of 3 December, Yoon made his move. Yoon announced he was declaring martial law and suspending much of the constitution in a demagogic televised speech that accused the opposition of being in the pay of the DPRK. What followed was the attempted execution of Yoon’s self-coup through several hours of farcical actions and confusion. Troops and police on Yoon’s orders attempted to mobilize and execute the martial law decree, but generally failed in spectacular fashion, failing to secure key government buildings (including the National Assembly), media offices, disperse protests, or incapacitate political leaders on Yoon’s list. Within a few hours, the National Assembly had met and declared the state of emergency null and void, and in the early morning of 4 December, Yoon conceded defeat and lifted the martial law.[9] Despite its brief nature, the coup did trigger substantial economic damage and uncertainty. Subsequent investigations have shown that the coup planning had been under way for over a year, with attempts to provoke a crisis with the DPRK and use it as a pretext for martial law, with false flag attacks on government buildings, US military installations, political leaders and other targets planned. This plan, if it had been successful, not only would have led to the establishment of a military dictatorship, but also would have risked the resumption of the Korean War. Fortunately, Yoon’s cronies seem to have been too incompetent to execute most of the plan successfully, and the DPRK refused to take the bait of the various provocations.[10] The US almost certainly knew of and at least tacitly approved of the coup. Yoon’s right-wing pro-US agenda has faced notable challenges from the opposition primarily through its control of the National Assembly, and Yoon and PPP’s abysmal polling numbers portended a devastating loss in the coming presidential elections. These realities strongly militated in favor of some radical action to firmly entrench the pro-US reactionaries and their policies in power, lest democracy produce an unfavorable result. Yoon himself is not a military man, and his inner circle did not hold any positions of note in the military or security bureaucracy prior to Yoon’s election either. The military and security men that planned and executed such a coup are universally closely linked to the US govt and their US equivalent officials stationed in the ROK, and the ROK military is effectively run through the US controlled ROK-US Combined Forces Command. The US ambassador to South Korea at the time of the coup, Phillip Goldberg, is notably not your typical incompetent political donor appointee on a taxpayer funded vacation, but a hardline career securocrat who has been involved in counterinsurgency and regime change operations across the world.[11] US protestations of ignorance and innocence are about as credible as Iraqi WMDs.
Lock Him Up
Since the coup, South Korea has been in a state of continuous political crisis with mass demonstrations for and against Yoon and his party. Yoon pledged to fight to the end, while his party has tried to resist serious attempts at accountability. Yoon has been impeached, as has his prime minister and previous interim president Han Duck-soo (Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok previously served as acting prime minister and acting president).[12] PM Han Duck-soo was acquitted as his refusal to appoint Constitutional Court justices to hear Yoon’s case was deemed to be illegal but not rising to the level of being a removable offense. Yoon was removed from the presidency by a unanimous vote of the Constitutional Court’s justices. Yoon has also has been criminally arrested and indicted for insurrection, though he was subsequently released from jail ahead of a criminal trial slated to begin in mid-April. After being released from pre-trial detention, Yoon was allegedly plotting for a second putsch attempt, though that should be impossible to move forward with after his removal. Attempts to hold Yoon to account for the coup attempt have faced strenuous opposition from pro-US Korean rightists who have moronically accused Yoon’s opponents of being in the pay of China and used Trump-like “Stop the Steal” rhetoric.[13] The United States has been working to salvage the situation for its anti-China agenda in South Korea, trying to keep the prospects of Yoon and South Korean right alive. [14]
What Now?
Yoon being forced from office has triggered a snap presidential election set for June 3. Yoon’s People Power Party and the opposition Democratic Party are both gearing up for a short but hard fought campaign. Yoon’s party is divided between multiple major contenders and questions over how much to embrace Yoon’s legacy, as the party’s rabid base is strongly pro Yoon and sees him as being put upon, but a strong majority of the overall electorate hates Yoon and was happy to see him go. The party and its acting president PM Han have so far occupied themselves with more anti-China and anti-DPRK saber-rattling and fearmongering, while begging for Trump to intervene on their behalf. The snap election is likely to be won by the candidate of the center-left opposition Democratic Party, overwhelmingly likely to be current party leader and 2022 presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung. Lee is a self described “realist” in opposition to Yoon’s strident US style “values” and “"democracy” claptrap, and is considered dovish on foreign policy. Lee is far less slavishly pro-US, having called for better relations with the DPRK as well as the PRC, opposing the trilateral alliance with Japan, and opposing arms exports to Ukraine.[15] As leader of the opposition, Lee was a major symbol of the anti-coup forces, livestreaming himself climbing over a fence at the National Assembly building to go vote down martial law, and he was also was recently found not guilty in an election law related case, which will only further boost his standing. The US was desperate to avoid Yoon’s outright removal or at least put it off as long as possible. The US and its right-wing partners in South Korea have bet that the more time passes between the coup attempt and a new election, the more likely the voters are to forget that it happened and be willing to vote for whichever dissembling quisling the Korean right puts up, while also giving the US time to lock in the trilateral on a bureaucratic level. If the alliance with Japan is firmly entrenched, it will be difficult if not impossible to undo even if a successor wants to do so. The new ROK president will face serious challenges in a variety of fields. Domestic political divisions have only deepened following the coup attempt and the society faces a variety of economic and social challenges. In foreign policy, icy relations with the DPRK will prove a challenge, US tariffs threaten the viability of South Korean exports and industry, and the relationship with China remains an open question. For the US, the interests, desires, and even the physical existence of the South Korean people are of no importance, only more grist for the war machine. People in South Korea should move forward with the knowledge that they are not only defending their democracy, but their homes and livelihoods from being sacrificed on the altar of the anti-China crusade. I wish them well in this righteous struggle.
[1] Kim, Sarah. “U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Says Yoon and Kishida Deserve Nobel Peace Prize.” Korea JoongAng Daily, April 25, 2024. https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2024-04-25/national/diplomacy/US-deputy-secretary-of-state-says-Yoon-and-Kishida-deserve-Nobel-Peace-Prize/2033779.
[2] Roh, Chan-Min. “Four Years of Sunshine: Examining South Korea’s Policy of Reconciliation Toward North Korea under the Moon Administration.” Synergy, March 31, 2021. https://utsynergyjournal.org/2021/03/30/four-years-of-sunshine-examining-south-koreas-policy-of-reconciliation-toward-north-korea-under-the-moon-administration/.
[3] Tong-Hyung, Kim. “North Korea Will No Longer Pursue Reconciliation with South, Kim Jong Un Says.” PBS, January 16, 2024. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/north-korea-will-no-longer-pursue-reconciliation-with-south-kim-jong-un-says.
[4] “Poland and South Korea Plan to Hold Joint Military Exercises in Poland Soon.” AP News, August 31, 2023. https://apnews.com/article/poland-south-korea-security-ukraine-war-armaments-f7a14770a3ad88ff5ea9e9243f86f174.
[5] Beal, Tim. “A Contrived Myth? North Korean Troops Battling the Ukrainians in Kursk.” Pearls and Irritations, November 12, 2024. https://johnmenadue.com/a-contrived-myth-north-korean-troops-battling-the-ukrainians-in-kursk/.
[6] Green, Michael J., and Cheol Hee Park. “Assessing the Direction of South Korea-Japan Relations in a New Era.” CSIS, October 6, 2020. https://www.csis.org/analysis/assessing-direction-south-korea-japan-relations-new-era.
[7] Inagaki, Kana, and Demetri Sevastopulo. “US and Japan Plan Biggest Upgrade to Security Pact in over 60 Years.” Financial Times, March 24, 2024. https://www.ft.com/content/df99994d-ec4b-4c3c-9c42-738ec9b338d0.
[8] Mackenzie, Jane, and Christy Coonie. “South Korean Opposition Wins Parliamentary Vote in Landslide.” BBC News, April 11, 2024. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68785969.
[9] Noh, KJ. “South Korea’s Martial Law Fiasco: Legitimation Crisis in the Imperial Vassal State.” CounterPunch.org, December 6, 2024. https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/12/06/south-koreas-martial-law-fiasco-legitimation-crisis-in-the-imperial-vassal-state/.
[10] Tk. “TBR Weekly Update: Week 3, December 2024.” The Blue Roof, December 24, 2024. https://www.blueroofpolitics.com/post/tbr-weekly-update-week-3/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter.
[11] Noh, KJ. “South Korea’s Martial Law Fiasco: Legitimation Crisis in the Imperial Vassal State.” CounterPunch.org, December 6, 2024. https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/12/06/south-koreas-martial-law-fiasco-legitimation-crisis-in-the-imperial-vassal-state/.
Shorrock, Tim. “The Biden Administration Is Desperately Trying to Paper Over...” Twitter, December 18, 2024. https://x.com/TimothyS/status/1869408681567420736.
Lee, Peter. “Spook Proconsul Png’d out of Bolivia for Fomenting a Secession and Kicked out of PH by Duterte.” Twitter, November 12, 2024. https://x.com/chinahand/status/1856518651911770434.
[12] “South Korea’s Parliament Impeaches Acting President Han Duck-Soo, as Yoon Suk Yeol Goes on Trial.” CNA, December 27, 2024. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/south-korea-acting-president-han-duck-soo-impeached-parliament-4827811.
[13] “Court Rules Unanimously to Depose Yoon, Citing ‘grave Betrayal’ of Public Trust.” Hankyoreh, April 4, 2025. https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1190795.html.
“South Koreans Protest in Snow as Yoon Arrest Deadline Nears.” CNA, January 5, 2025. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/south-korea-rival-protests-yoon-suk-yeok-martial-law-resist-arrest-4838661.
“South Korean Investigators Arrest Impeached President Yoon.” Reuters, January 14, 2025. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-korea-authorities-president-yoons-residence-execute-arrest-warrant-yonhap-2025-01-14/.
Yim, Hyunsu, and Josh Smith. “South Korea President Yoon Indicted for Insurrection over Martial Law Decree | Reuters.” Reuters, January 26, 2025. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-koreas-prosecutors-indict-president-yoon-insurrection-yonhap-reports-2025-01-26/.
Chun, Simone. “As Soon as He Was Released from Detention...” Twitter, March 8, 2025. https://x.com/SimoneChun/status/1860371902851874946.
[14] Sang-ho, Song. “Campbell Reaffirms U.S.’ ‘strongest Possible’ Commitment to S. Korea.” Yonhap News Agency, December 23, 2024. https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20241224000500315.
[15] Kim, Minho. “Who Is Lee Jae-Myung, the South Korean Opposition Leader?” The New York Times, December 3, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/03/world/asia/lee-jae-myung-opposition-leader.html.
Han-sol, Ko. “Korea Seeks New President: June 3 Seen as Likely Date of Snap Presidential Election.” Hankyoreh, April 4, 2025. https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1190772.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=btn_share&utm_content=20250404.