The attempt by South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol to abolish democracy and install military rule was not on many people's bingo car for December. Coming out of the blue, Yoon declared martial law on Tuesday 11pm Seoul time to see off "anti-state forces" and imaginary helpers of North Korea. The articles of the decree suspends all political activity and the subjection of the mass media to army control. This is, you couldn't make it up, to "protect liberal democracy". It's just as well that the National Assembly completely ignored the president's command, with several members clambering over the railings to vote down the coup - which it did so with 190 out of 300 legislators present. With the constitution on their side and protestors out on the streets in the early hours, Yoon had little choice but to climb down and rescind the order. Perhaps the most farcical coup attempt of modern times, but thankfully without the tragedy that usually attends them.
Why did Yoon have a stab at overthrowing Korean constitutionalism and turning the clock back 40 years? This BBC report lays out proximate causes. Yoon has been hampered by losing his assembly majority. He and his entourage have been on the receiving end of corruption allegations, some of which smacked of our very own freebiegate. And he was forced to make a humiliating public apology over botched investigations into Kim Keon-hee, his wife. Stymied at every turn, it appears a cocktail of frustration and desperation are what guided his hand to press the coup button.
Looking at his politics, Yoon is fairly typical of conservative figures who flirt with extreme right rhetoric and tactics. Following the play book of the right the world over, his election in 2022 was off the back of scaremongering against the North, the permissive society, and "liberal elites". In office, alongside corruption we've seen the usual diet of deregulation, kickbacks to the well heeled, and a found fondness for neoclassical economics. Which just so happen to enrich his class further. Likewise the kind of accountability dodging that would have made even Boris Johnson wince was the Yoon hallmark. Small wonder that his approval ratings had collapsed.
His emboldening by domestic democratic backsliding is only some of the story. The international scene has to be taken into account. Trump's election is a signal to many on the right that there's still plenty of gas in the reactionary tank, and that support for authoritarianism is real enough. But more important is the showing up of the American-led "rules based" international order as a sham without any consequences. The fact the International Criminal Court has issued warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu which several Western governments have said they will ignore, and that there has been zero accountability for leaders who've allowed Israeli forces to commit atrocities in broad day light must have been a consideration on Yoon's part. As a strategically vital US ally, he was perhaps hoping that the plot armour the US have conferred on Israel as part of its schemes for the Middle East would extend to him. Especially given how Yoon has spent years talking up the apocalyptic threat from the North and that the South is riddled with Kimist agents and their useful idiots. It was a desperate gambit and one that, thankfully, appears to have failed.
What now? The military have returned to barracks and the police have largely dispersed, but that is not the end of it. The botched coup has led the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions to call a general strike to force his resignation. Parliamentarians are going to have to move fast to prevent what was to be a retrenchment of reaction from turning into its opposite: a mass radicalisation and demands for broader democratic and social concessions. Don't be too surprised if Yoon is put out of office in short order, and will be pondering retirement from the hospitality offered by the nearest custody suite before long.
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