The security chief of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has resigned, a week after leading the team that blocked Yoon’s arrest over his brief declaration of martial law.
Park Chong-jun stepped down after being questioned by police over alleged obstruction of duties, and his resignation was accepted by the acting president Choi Sang-mok. Speaking outside police headquarters in Seoul, Park criticised attempts to arrest a sitting president, adding “there should not be any physical clash or bloodshed” in any further attempts.
Meanwhile, criminal investigators looking into Yoon’s alleged insurrection are said to be “mulling their next move”, according to Bloomberg. Yoon remains “holed up at his hillside residence” following last week’s six-hour stand-off between police and the Presidential Security Service, led by Park, said Reuters.
What did the commentators say?
Yoon’s short-lived declaration of martial law on 3 December has “plunged one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies into a period of unprecedented political turbulence”, said Reuters. While South Korean democracy looks “on balance” to be safe, recent events suddenly make its democracy look “young and vulnerable”, said Tortoise. South Korea’s military dictatorship ended less than 40 years ago, in 1987.
In Seoul, there is a “sense of underlying unease”, said The Times. “Sure, the martial law declaration in early December only lasted six hours, but what if it hadn’t?” For the younger generation, “martial law was something from their parents’ stories or history textbooks about the 1980s. Now they’ve witnessed what many call the gravest threat to South Korean democracy since those dark days.”
This is a country that has “masterfully projected itself globally through K-pop, award-winning films and Netflix sensations”, such as “Squid Game”. But “beneath the polished surface, old wounds and new crises are tearing at society”.
Nowhere are the “bitter divisions” in South Korean society more apparent than the daily protests outside the presidential residence in Seoul. Here, “supporters of the impeached president wave flags and shout ‘illegal impeachment’ while opponents demand his immediate arrest for attempting to overthrow democracy”.
Yoon’s failed arrest also raised “urgent questions about the state of South Korea’s governance and political disarray: Who’s in charge?” said The Washington Post. Acting President Choi is the second interim leader since 14 December, after Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who initially took over from Yoon and was himself impeached amid opposition criticism he was stalling judicial appointments needed to continue Yoon’s impeachment process.
And the “erosion of the rule of law and the chain of command comes at a worrying moment”, said The Economist. A North Korean mid-range ballistic missile test, which took place while outgoing US secretary of state Antony Blinken visited Seoul earlier this week, served as a timely reminder “that the turbulent world around South Korea will not wait for it to resolve its own crises”.
What next?
Criminal investigators have obtained another arrest warrant and Yoon now faces a “new and potentially more robust attempt” to arrest him for insurrection, said Reuters.
Yoon is also under a separate Constitutional Court trial reviewing parliament’s impeachment of him, which will decide whether to remove him from office permanently or reinstate him. His lawyers have said Yoon will accept the verdict of the court.