Wednesday marked one year since South Korea’s short-lived declaration of martial law, a harrowing six-hour saga that upended domestic politics, shocked South Koreans, and led to the impeachment of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Yoon remains enmeshed in a web of ongoing trials. His first trial deals with charges of “leading an insurrection”; a second trial focuses on related charges. Yoon has been largely absent from these trials.
In August, former South Korean prime minister Han Duck-soo was also indicted on charges including “abetting the ringleader of an insurrection.” Seoul’s Central District Court is scheduled to deliver its ruling on Han’s case on January 21.
Turning the page
Despite the turmoil brought on by the martial-law declaration, South Korea rebounded remarkably fast, highlighting the resilience of its institutions. South Korea's economy, for example, contracted in the wake of Yoon’s declaration but, year-over-year, is expected to grow by one per cent, defying predictions.
And as Victor Cha, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, writes, even as a leadership vacuum complicated governance from February to June, senior South Korean trade officials — in addition to the country’s national security adviser and foreign minister — “shuttled to Washington almost weekly” in search of a trade deal with the U.S., which was finalized last month.
Political polarization in the country, however, remains high, partly due to Yoon’s martial-law declaration: a Gallup Korea survey published this week found that 77 per cent of respondents believe “political polarization has deepened” since last year.
