Insights | Farce of martial law fuels vicious cycle in South Korea's politics: expert

(ECNS) -- The tactic of declaring martial law reeks of desperation of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, Josef Gregory Mahoney, a professor of politics and international relations at East China Normal University, candidly stated in an interview with China News Network.

“He did it as a last-ditch effort to try to preserve his presidency, but he had to have known that the likelihood of success was very small,” Mahoney said.

The martial law declaration was destined to be a losing gamble, he added

Although short-lived, Yoon's martial law has unleashed a political storm in South Korea.

Parliament swiftly rejected the measure, and public demands for his resignation or impeachment have grown louder.

Adding to the drama, opposition parties have called for a full-scale investigation into First Lady Kim Keon-hee, accusing her of corruption and abuse of power.

“So, it's a little ironic that the parliament was targeting his wife,” Mahoney remarked. “In part, when he himself was someone who was really no friend of women, in terms of the way he came to office and the policies that he was promoting.”

The deeper issue lies in South Korea’s vicious political cycle. Mahoney pointed out that this pattern is not unique to South Korea but also resonates in countries like the United States.

“I do think that what we have seen in South Korea is symptomatic of problems that we've seen in the U.S., which is just a cycle of parties trying to tear each other down. And we just see this change one after another, where no one ever is able to actually solve or take responsibility for real problems,”

This martial law farce may well be a microcosm of the systemic problems plaguing South Korea's political landscape, Mahoney concluded.(Wu Xinru, Zhao Li)