Tone Deaf

Former South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun attempted to commit suicide while in jail for his role in President Yoon Suk Yeol’s decision to declare martial law and the resulting political crisis earlier this month.

According to the Associated Press, Kim allegedly recommended that Yoon make the declaration and send troops to the National Assembly parliament to prevent lawmakers from voting to overturn the declaration – he faced political challenges in implementing his agenda and thought this way he could overcome them.

In an address to the nation on Dec. 12 – the first since lawmakers overturned his declaration – Yoon claimed that he needed to suspend civil rights – he attempted to shut down the free press, too – because the opposition-controlled legislature was undermining the country’s “liberal democratic order,” wrote National Public Radio. He described the small contingent of troops that he sent to the National Assembly as a “symbolic gesture,” and worried about how lawmakers were “helping North Korea.”

Lawmakers don’t accept his reasoning. On Saturday, the National Assembly voted to impeach the president for the second time in two weeks. This time, they were successful. Thousands gathered outside parliament to cheer.

That’s because Yoon’s political party, the People Power Party, which had previously boycotted an impeachment vote initiated by opposition lawmakers in control of the legislature, this time joined in to oust the president, CNN reported. They have already voted to impeach Yoon’s justice minister and the head of the national police force.

That doesn’t mean the turmoil is over.

After initially saying he would step down if asked, Yoon backtracked last week and said he would fight “to the end,” Reuters reported. Now he believes the courts might help him. But that’s another delusional gambit, say analysts.

“No wonder why people call him a blind swordsman: He thinks he can overcome any challenge through his own bold initiative, no matter how crazy people may think it is,” Kyung Hee University political scientist Ahn Byong-jin told the New York Times. “He will launch a battle for public opinion ahead of a ruling at the Constitutional Court.”

Relying on public opinion is magical thinking, analysts added, pointing to opinion polls showing his support at 11 percent – they were low before the coup attempt because of scandals involving himself and his wife.

Mass protests have also broken out since his declaration and still continue, with angry demonstrators calling for Yoon to resign, an Al Jazeera video explained. In a sign of how condemnation of Yoon has gone viral, many protesters have carried light sticks popular with K-pop music fans, saying they make the events less “scary,” added Reuters.

Even so, the lingering political turmoil is having an impact on the economy, and diplomatic and security relationships, the Washington Post wrote.

Meanwhile, analysts say Yoon miscalculated. He seemed to forget that South Koreans vividly remember the military coups that rocked the country in the 1970s and 1980s. The protests, defiant lawmakers, and other checks and balances that stymied Yoon’s martial law declaration are signs of how many Koreans don’t want that bygone era to return, said South Korean opposition lawmaker Wi Sung-lac, writing in the Economist.

“The country is deeply polarized, but its living memory of military rule strengthens its commitment to democracy,” he wrote. “(Even so), as political polarization deepens globally, South Korea’s experience serves as a reminder that no democracy is immune to such threats.”