On December 14, South Korea’s parliament impeached the country’s hard-core reactionary, war-mongering President Yoon Suk Yeol. This happened as hundreds of thousands of people who had come into the streets 12 days earlier to demand no martial law escalated their struggle. Impeachment is like a legal indictment that will lead to a trial, which will take place within 180 days.

On December 3, Yoon (Koreans list their family name first) declared martial law. He ordered that parliament be shut down, protest and free speech be banned, and that the government be enabled to take over all mainstream media. 

Yoon declared that he had to impose martial law to stop “the threat of North Korean communist forces" and "to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people." (For background, see Surprise! A Righteous Uprising in South Korea.) None of that is true. First of all, North Korea is a capitalist country with a thin coating of “socialist” rhetoric. And the protesters are not North Korean forces. But Yoon’s slanders did reflect sharp differences in the South Korean ruling class over how to handle being on the “front line” of the clash between the West and North Korea, Russia, and China.

In the face of huge and defiant protests, the very next day, Yoon suspended martial law. But while hundreds of thousands in the streets demanded an end to the Yoon presidency, Yoon’s supporters in South Korea’s legislature blocked efforts to impeach him.

Protests Gather Steam When President Won’t Step Down 

According to news reports, in the bitter cold of Korean winter, protests intensified. And as they did, sections of people who had supported Yoon were reported to be turning on him. As society became more unstable, and the outcome of the protests more unpredictable, the South Korean stock market tumbled as much as 7% over a few days. This decision by the protestors to keep going may have played a critical role in changing the trajectory.

The increasingly unstable situation set off concerns in the U.S., Western Europe, Japan, and Australia. South Korea’s capitalist-imperialist economy is the 10^th largest in the world and a key player in the so-called “free world” of sweatshops and slums, exploitation and oppression, dominated by the U.S. 

And as protest continued and escalated, South Korea’s imperialist allies expressed concern about the stability of this frontline nation in the global clash between U.S. capitalism-imperialism and its allies, and Russia and China who back North Korea. Some allies raised concerns that in suspending high-level military officers he considered unloyal, Yoon was leaving South Korea vulnerable to North Korean military moves. 

Both the Biden administration and mouthpieces for MAGA fascists crudely intervened in the impeachment process to protect the interests of the U.S. empire. The Biden administration, posing as friends of the protesters, “advised” (as in ordered) the opposition to remove wording in the indictment that accused Yoon of “antagonizing North Korea, China, and Russia, adhering to a bizarre Japan-centered foreign policy, and appointing pro-Japan individuals to key government positions, thereby causing isolation in Northeast Asia and triggering a crisis of war.”

An editorial in the pro-Trump New York Post, whose reactionary politics generally align with Yoon, warned, “South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s misuse of his authority to declare martial law earlier this month has placed his nation in a constitutional crisis that will have a lasting impact on US strategic interests across Asia just as Donald Trump returns to the White House.” (emphasis added)

The take-away here is not that either Biden or the pro-Trump Post suddenly became defenders of free speech, dissent, and antiwar sentiments. They may have felt that Yoon had to go since the protests and instability were posing a threat to the U.S. empire and the situation had to be chilled out, for now at least. But those who want to see fascism stopped in the U.S. should keep an open mind and, as more comes to light, strive to understand everything that came into play here.

In the face of escalating crisis, most of Yoon’s supporters in the South Korean parliament stopped blocking an impeachment vote. The parliament voted 204 to 85 to impeach him, with a dozen of Yoon’s supporters defecting to vote for impeachment. 

Hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets to celebrate. Yoon remained defiant. He said he would “stop temporarily for now, but the journey to the future that I’ve walked with the people for the past two years should not stop.” 

The future in South Korea is yet to be written. Yoon was replaced for now by an ally, a deputy who is nearly as hated as he is. And Yoon will face trial on his impeachment charges.

The “Genie” of Mass Struggle

But the main thing here is that Yoon’s declaration of martial law tore up what for decades has been the “normal way things are supposed to work” in a capitalist-imperialist democracy like South Korea. It let a genie out of a bottle. It brought hundreds of thousands into the streets. And in 24 hours, in what on the surface was a “stable” South Korea, ruled by a hard-core reactionary, things changed literally overnight!

The people’s demands remain to be met. But the South Korean people are setting an important standard for people who refuse to accept fascism. That “genie” of mass struggle remains out of the bottle.