The Politics of Self Preservation in Seoul
In the wake of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s short-lived declaration of martial law on December 3, the country of South Korea faces an unknown future. In the short term, Yoon faces an impeachment.
“What we witnessed was completely unexpected by anyone—it came out of nowhere,” says Illinois Tech Professor of Political Science Matthew Shapiro, who graduated from Yonsei University’s GSIS (Korean Studies) and spent the 2022–23 academic year in South Korea as a Fulbright Scholar. “It’s bizarre. There was virtually no legitimate claim for martial law.”
Yoon had been struggling to develop political support since being elected in 2022, and calls to impeach his appointees had been growing. After the midterm elections gave Yoon’s opposition an even greater majority in parliament, Shapiro believes the South Korean president became desperate.
“I think he saw the writing on the wall in terms of who was next in terms of impeachment: most likely him,” says Shapiro. “The declaration of martial law was Yoon’s ‘Hail Mary’ to keep things under some sort of control and to keep himself out of prison. But it wouldn’t have been sustainable.”
The aftermath of the martial law declaration has been chaotic, with lawmakers and citizens alike condemning Yoon’s actions. A polarizing figure since before his presidency began, Yoon’s actions may turn out to be a step too far—one that harkens back to periods of unrest in South Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.
“This is so unfortunate for the Korean citizens themselves who are dealing with immense emotional stress given the ongoing state of uncertainty,” says Shapiro. “Before, they had simply been frustrated by political polarization in Korea; now, they face a situation resembling the pre-democratic authoritarian regimes of the ’70s and ’80s, where soldiers and government agents captured and tortured dissidents and freedom of speech was suppressed in the name of national security.”
Many people are still burdened with the physical and psychological scars of that time, a sentiment reinforced by South Korean author Han Kang when she .
Shapiro concurs: “To even consider invoking martial law under those circumstances is itself a tragedy.”
