Has President Yoon Suk-yeol Learned His Lesson?

Most of the US coverage of Yoon Suk-yeol's attempt to impose martial law on South Korea still looks predictably bad, though "chaos" has largely given way to "What can we expect?" Will Yoon resign, will he be impeached, what does this mean for future US relations with South Korea, etc.  The Washington Post headline I've screencapped above takes the cake for tone-deafness, though. "Misstep"?  That fits, of course, with the Beltway media fondness for saying that the United States "stumbles" or "blunders" into our many wars.

There has been some speculation from Koreans about what Yoon thought he was doing, though speculation is all it is.

The left-ish South Korean newsmagazine Hankyoreh ran this cartoon:

Speculation is fun, but I doubt we'll ever know why Yoon made this power grab.  His own political party, which voted to reject the order for martial law, has announced that they will not vote to impeach him, and he has his supporters among the populace - as I've said, there's a sizable base for authoritarianism in South Korea.  The country's largest labor union has called a general strike in support of Yoon's removal, and the South Korean police are investigating whether he can be charged with insurrection.

The best thing I've seen has been this long article by Tim Shorrock, an American journalist who knows Korea and its history well.  This is why I've relied heavily on independent and usually left-wing sources for news since the late 1960s: they're much more accurate than the mainstream, let alone overtly right-wing media.  I remembered former ROK president Park Geun-hye's failed attempt to impose martial law to avoid impeachment in 2017, but now I learned that "Yoon's gambit began at 11:00 pm on Monday night, when Army Chief of Staff General Park An-su, a four-star general, issued a decree of martial law" - that was an hour before Yoon went before the cameras to justify his move.  

I also learned more about Yoon's collaboration with US President Biden in military alliance with a re-arming Japan.  (Of course Biden likes to have a toady like Yoon in an important client state.)  Far from the "stability" the US prattles about, these moves destabilize northeast Asia.  So it's not surprising that the US Embassy in Seoul did not condemn Yoon's attempted coup, posting that his "announcement to end martial law is a crucial step" - as though martial law just appeared of its own volition and Yoon boldly moved to end it.  (Was it a coup, given that it was bloodless and failed almost immediately?  Yes.  Arnaud Bertrand is wrong to call it a "self-coup," since most coups are internal.)  Shorrock's article is long, but it's packed with information you need.

We're living in interesting times, aren't we?

I Gotta Get Out of This Bad Neighborhood

Wow.  A lot has happened in South Korea in the past twelve hours.  I hesitate to post this, because I don't know what the next twelve hours might bring, but for the moment things are looking up.

First President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law in South Korea, vaguely blaming supposed pro-North Korean elements active in the South.  He did this at midnight Korean time, perhaps hoping it was a good time to spring a fait accompli on the nation.  But thousands of protesters hit the streets, including hundreds of members of the National Assembly, who pushed their way past police and soldiers into the Assembly building.  They then voted overwhelmingly (CNN says unanimously) to overturn the decree; this included not only the opposition but Yoon's own party.  A few hours later, at about 5 a.m. Korean time, Yoon backed down, saying that he would retract the declaration as soon as his cabinet could meet to confirm it.  As I write this, it appears that the cabinet has met and martial law has been lifted.

US and other Western media have reacted predictably enough.  CNN titled this Youtube clip "Yoon backtracks after plunging South Korea into chaos with martial law order," and the word "chaos" appeared in the reports of some other networks.  But it doesn't look to me like there was chaos, not even in CNN's reporting.  The protests were orderly, the assembly members pushed past the cops in an organized manner, and voted Yoon's declaration down.  At about that point, the military trucks dispersed.  But you know, the corporate media hate it when the rabble talk back to their betters: they can't see it as anything but chaos.  (Or CHOAS, as this outlet spelled it. P.S.: they've corrected the spelling in the thumbnail, but the Internet is forever.) 

The reporter in Seoul knows some of the history at least, and I give him credit for acknowledging the ROK's history of dictatorship and resistance to it.  This was the first time martial law had been declared in South Korea since it was lifted in 1980, but there have been times when it seemed close, as in 2008, when then-President Lee Myong-bak cracked down on protesters and media who objected to his authoritarian ways. Lee also accused his critics of being in league with the North, but that was normal South Korean right-wing politics then.  (I was in Seoul at the time.)

CNN's analyst wasn't bad either, in an Old-Asia-Hand way.  The anchors, on the other hand, were dreadful, spouting every cliche they could think of.

CBS' coverage was about the same, a mixed bag leading off with the obligatory reference to "chaos."  Their reporter, a White House correspondent traveling with Joe Biden in Angola, reads a preliminary NSC statement announcing America's "serious concern" about Yoon's action.  Yoon hadn't notified either Biden or other elements of the US government of his intention, and caught them by surprise. Biden said he was still being briefed.  The reporter, Willie James Inman, evidently has some experience in South Korea, but is more concerned to boost Biden's diplomacy in northeast Asia.  He says that South Korea "isn't necessarily in the best neighborhood" and mentions the "storied history", with "tense moments" between Korea and Japan.  That's an interesting way to describe the thirty-five year occupation of Korea by Japan,  of notable harshness and cruelty, including a serious attempt to eliminate Korean language and culture, but hey - time constraints.

I have the impression that corporate-media coverage of Korea has improved in the past couple of decades, but it was so desultory and ignorant before that that's not saying much.  At the moment I'm just relieved that this crisis seems to have been resolved so quickly. Our reporters speculated about Yoon's political future: can he stay in office?  He was already very unpopular, even for a South Korean President; again, comparable to his right-wing predecessors like Lee Myoung-bak and Park Geun-hye.  (Despite South Koreans' determination to preserve their democracy, they still keep voting in dangerous right-wingers every other term.  Korean democracy is counterbalanced by Korean authoritarianism.) There have already been calls for Yoon's resignation, and since his own party stomped on his overreach this time, he may not be able to stay in office. Or maybe he will; I'm not going to predict or even speculate.  My main concern, again, is the people of Korea, which includes numerous friends of mine, people I've known for decades.  It looks like they've dodged a bullet, and I'm very relieved, though probably not as relieved as they are.