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Written by Uriel Araujo, PhD, anthropology researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in South Korea against alleged “pro-North Korean anti-state forces”, in what is being described as an attempt to launch a coup. Yoon did not produce any evidence to substantiate his claims, and the opposition and majority Members of Parliament rejected the move a few hours later and the order was lifted.
Now with the move backfiring, he could face impeachment—but it is too soon to tell what might happen next. Yoon has been facing corruption accusations and is very unpopular. Declaring martial law is a presidential prerogative, however due to its exceptionality, employing it can often be seen with suspicion.
When advocating for a South Korea-style “land for peace” deal for Ukraine to end the conflict, James Stavridis (former supreme allied commander of NATO), described Seoul as “a pulsating city”, and South Korean in general as “nothing short of a miracle”, considering “the incredible reconstruction” which “took it from a war-devastated land to the 10th-largest economy in the world” – and apparently he envisages a similar “bright” future for Ukraine, but that is a different topic.
When it comes to the realities of the country, things are not always quite so sweet, though. Any story of post-war South Korean economic growth and rapid industrialization should include the years of general Park Chung Hee’s authoritarian dictatorship (1963-1979).
Such development has a dark side: for instance, despite undeniable economic growth, South Korea is also known to this day for its rampant elderly female prostitution issue, the so-called “Bacchus ladies”, often in their 60s or even older, are a regular sight in Seoul (perhaps unnoticed by Stavridis).
The South Korean sex trade in South Korea, involving the so-called “Korean Military Comfort Women” has everything to do with the American military presence in the country, and remains a key part of Korean-American relations, according to scholar Na-Young Lee – it is one of the many social problems South Koreans face.
The disastrous “United States Army Military Government in Korea” ruled the southern half of the Korean peninsula for a short period of time after World War II, and is one of the causes of the Korean war, as well as part of the South Korean-American “alliance forged in blood” as scholars William Stueck (University of Georgia) and Boram Yi (University of Baltimore) call it. In fact the American-South Korean relationship can indeed be described as semi-colonial in nature to this day.
As for Democratic political stability, one may recall that Park Geun-hye, the former President (2013-2017), and daughter of aforementioned dictator Park Chung Hee, was impeached on influence peddling charges amid a Rasputin-like Shamanistic religion cult scandal—there were allegations that the former President’s friend and spiritual advisor Choi Soon-sil with no official state position, was a “puppet master” and “the real power behind the throne.”
The cultural-religious phenomenon is common in South Korean society and there often is a political angle to it. In fact, the problem also haunts the incumbent President Yoon Suk Yeol: once again shamanistic healers who advise him and his wife Kim Kun-hee have been accused of playing some sort of shady role in his campaigns and decisions.
The irony is that the incumbent President was a Seoul prosecutor and played a major role in the impeachment and later incarceration of aforementioned former President Park Geun-hye. To recall, her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak (2008-2013) was sentenced in October 2018 to 15 years in prison for corruption, but has been pardoned by President Yoon in 2022.
Roh Moo-hyun, the president before Lee (2003-2008), committed suicide while being investigated for corruption as well. The point is that for decades, South Korea has in fact been no stranger to political crisis, corruption, authoritarianism and the like. One may recall army general Chun Doo-hwan (1980-1988), better known as “The Butcher of Gwangju” for employing troops to put down demonstrations, resulting in over 200 deaths.
At that time Washington had operational control of every South Korean military unit and was thus accused of not having done enough to restrain their “ally” during the massacre. So, one may argue that any portrayal of South Korea as a supposed “oasis of democracy”, stability and prosperity is exaggerated and serves propaganda purposes to demonize the neighboring state of North Korea.
The aforementioned admiral Stavridis of course also fails to mention some of the details about how Korea once became a “war-devastated land”, including what is now the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea DPRK, that is, North Korea. Of course the very existence of its capital, Pyongyang, with its skyscrapers and bridges, could also be considered a “miracle” of sorts, especially given the fact that the US “carpet-bombed” most of North Korea and part of South Korea too.
Those events of course were “formative to North Korean society”, as Tom O’Connor (Foreign Policy Senior Writer) puts it. It might be just easier to characterize North Korean leaders such as Kim Jong Un (and his father and grandfather) as irrational despots, but, according to O’Connor, during the war “things were rarely black-and-white”, and “North Korea’s poor human rights record and military expansion have received extensive media coverage, while Kim Jong Un’s efforts to stabilize the economy have gone relatively underreported.”
Back to Yoon Suk Yeol apparent attempted coup de force, there is of course a domestic policy angle to it, but there is also a local geopolitical context, with tensions rising in the Pacific. Namely, Seoul under President Yoon increasingly more aligned with Washington, and the specter of NATO haunting the region.
One should nor forget Washington backed the 1979 coup in the country. Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, described Yoon’s decision as a “legal overreach and a political miscalculation”. Easley adds that “with extremely low public support and without strong backing within his own party and administration, the president should have known how difficult it would be to implement his late-night decree.”
South Korea is home to at least nine major US military bases and no less than 24,234 military personnel, including marines, and active-duty soldiers and Yoon is no fool. One may assume he would have consulted with his American “allies” and gotten their “okay” before proceeding with any power-grabbing endeavors of his involving the South Korean military.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stated Washington was not aware that South Korea’s president intended to declare martial law, but one cannot be blamed for taking such a statement with some suspicion. The coup failed, but the plot is far from over.
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the world wide deep state is trying its best to light fires 🔥 around the world prior to trump becoming president.. !!
yes actually theyrs like pyromaniacs molochs go and look at the opening a d closing ceremonies of the last commonwealth games . signs and symbols rule the world .not words .
trump is going to be worst than biden and it’s about trump character and intelligence plus the corruption of the exceptionals and the masters breed and the usa empire that think the world is their reign and they should be the masters of everything and everyone else a slave.
when you can marry nikolai ingraham into an eurasian scot genealogy then globalism s a universal religion for the eternal city isn’t it ..east meets west and i shall not be a widow says the whore of babylon .
syria is dead, syrian army doesn’t want to fight, just want to enjoy life and smoke a joint. like it happened to the afghan army, they’ll join the terrorists as soon as assad leaves in a 🚁 he fights drugs, and uses drugs.
follow the yellow brick toad its windy on the willows you know ratty you tube
“emir of qatar delivers heartfelt speech at mansion house dinner .” nb in the city of london, the host . and he’s from the state of qarar .wakey wakey who’s the boss ?
hahahaha heartfelt .hahahaha .he acknowledges the future of robotics at any rate
and follow thd history of pop ikonography start with thd advent of tv and elves and hix smash breakout hot hit .jalihouse rock his manager colonel tom parker wasn’t it ,i wonder if he was related to the brothers parker ? he was a jesuit wasn’t he ? and there begun the fairies story that’s now dr jill’s rainbow pill in the white house saturnalia celebration of romanisms cultural core values . .imo
btw south korea is known as the republic of samsung throughout the region. about 30% of the wealth belongs to samsung .that’s a family .
hahaha… nonsense, how you can take out a goverment of a country you entirely own, hahaha i wonder if the guy who wrote the article has a functional brain. southkorea has to change goverment because we are entering the age of wars. democracy is and always was a charade a deceive, now the western goverments needs hard line goverment and that’s why they are adapting themselves to enter into the age of wars.
when china decides that troops from usa empire has to move away from south korea, that same day usa empire will retreat. but the master hegemon deployed nuclear weapons to give china a blow in order to the supreme hegemon still has advantage. all their lands and colonies worldwide of the empire had a reason to exists, just to deploy military bases and nuclear missiles. to give a nuclear punch to adversaries of the empire.