How South Korea’s democracy prevailed on a reckless leader

When Yoon Sok Yol was nominated for the presidency, he was The word “king” was written on the comfort of his hand. The southern Koreans – and mocked – as a shamanian rituals reflecting his desire for the highest government.

But after his inauguration in May 2022, it didn’t take a long time to see an authoritarian chain in Mr. Yun.

In a short notice, the presidential office was transferred from the graceful blue house to a vague military building. When he reached 63 in December 2023, his security team Sang Honoring him as a “president sent from heaven” and describes him “845,280 minutes” in his position as much as “Mubarak’s time.” Two months later, a university student protested the decision of Mr. Yun to cut the government’s budgets for scientific research Mandan and withdraw it By President Guard. When journalists published what he called “Fake News”, The representatives of the prosecution raided their homes and news rooms to collect evidence.

Mr. Yun continued to pay the circumstance, until he made his deadly mistake: on December 3, he He declared customary rulings, The threat of a very dear part of South Korean life: democracy.

For South Koreans, democracy was never given; He fought for decades of struggle against authoritarian leaders at the expense of torture, imprisonment and bloodshed. All major political monuments in South Korea – an end to the dictatorship, the introduction of free elections, and the woman of abusive leaders – were achieved after citizens took the streets.

So when people saw the forces sent by Mr. Yun stormed the National Assembly to seize the legislature by force, their response was immediate. But unlike those who fought government repression in the 1950s until the eighties, the South Koreans who protested in recent months have had democratic institutions alongside them.

The current constitution, which was written in 1987 after a huge uprising in support of democracy, gave the National Assembly the power to vote on the fighting law and the dismissal of presidents. The Constitutional Court, which was created under this constitution, decided whether to remove or return the president who was isolated. The democratically elected leaders under this constitution imprisoned those who had previously taken power by the military force.

Young generations, including paratroopers, sent Mr. Yun to seize the association in December, and grew up in learning this date through Bookness movies And the novelists love Nobel violent Han Kang.

On December 3, the forces hesitated before angry citizens prevented them with bare hands, allowing time for legislators, including some members of the Mr. Yun party, to gather and vote to raise the decree of the fighting law. Then he founded the association, on December 14.

On Friday, the eight constitutional court judges, including those appointed by Mr. Yun or his party, supported this dismissal, which put an end to his military rebellion.

For one of the observers, these events were a victory for democratic institutions that were created in the late 1980s. “The response to the attempt of Yoon’s coup, the maturity of Korean democracy – first and foremost, showed the flexibility of civil society, whose reaction was greatly and greatly to opposing the coup, most notably with the passion of Korean youth who were not alive in the eighties of the last century, and commented on the risks of that to the Autocrats. Stanford University.

“The fact that it was a unanimous decision by the Constitutional Court, with the conservative appointed appointed to the decision, a very important expression not only about the clarity of the case, but also the ability to overcome the ideological polarization.”

The authority of Mr. Yoon also revealed the gaps of democracy in South Korea. If such a thing can happen in a nation for a long time, it is an ideal condition for the democratic character in Asia, ScientistsIt can happen elsewhere as well.

Despite its removal, the deep polarization that led to Mr. Yoon’s declaration of martial law continues. The partisan struggle between the left and the right is likely to intensify in the next two months, as the country is heading towards presidential elections.

But the past four months have also demonstrated the elasticity of South Korean democracy.

Until Mr. Yoon came, a few South Koreans believed that a return to military rule was possible in their country, a peaceful democracy known globally for its cars, smartphones and K-dramas. Many of those who have joined the protests who claim to prolong Mr. Yun in recent weeks that they have been more proud of their democracy than their cultural exports such as Boy BTS or Netflix “SQUID” game.

When Mr. Yoon harmed this pride, he chose a battle he could not win. During the gatherings, people shared a video of the former president Kim Die Jong, A creative figure in the South Korean conflict.

Mr. Kim said: “Democracy is not free.” In the clip. “You should get rid of blood, sweat and tears for it.”

If the Constitutional Court voted to restore Mr. Yoon, South Korea will martyred a “second wave of democracy” and “Gangjo again”, said Zhou Gab Gab, a prominent South Korean journalist who has covered political development in the country since 1971, where ordinary laws were referred to in combat laws in combat laws Southern Guangjo In 1980.

“We had our share of martial martial rulings, but Yoon Sok Yol was the first president to send the armed forces to Parliament,” said Mr. Zhu.

Mr. Yun was once a hero among the South Koreans. He built his national image as an uncompromising public prosecutor when he helped to prison two of the former presidents of corruption. But it has proven a catastrophic as a political – unable to engage in giving and explicitly solidarity with the opposition, which controls the National Assembly.

He was accused of filling his presidential staff with very shy officials to speak. It was called “Al -Sayed 59 minutes”, because this is the period in which he was said to speak at an hour. I rarely apologize for The wife’s scandals Or even to Deadly disasters. He used his veto power to kill opposition laws. The opposition reduced its budgets and the weakest of an unprecedented number of political appointed in his government.

“The player is busy playing on the field, he does not look at the electronic results panel.”

Such a situation was allowed to pay unimaginable efforts, such as Improving relationships With Japan and Significant increase The number of doctors. But even many who sympathized with his struggle against the opposition did not see the martial law to come.

“The Koreans do not want the option of the eighties, when the martial rulings and the tear gas disappeared with painful people of many families,” said Alexis Dudin, a history professor at the University of Connecticut. “Yun and his advisers were absent from the South Korea reading brand today in several clear ways.”