LEILA FADEL, HOST:
South Korea's constitutional court removed impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol from office today. Yoon's impeachment came after he declared martial law in December and sent troops to occupy the Parliament. The country will now have to elect a new president within 60 days. The verdict marks a turning point but not the end of a political crisis that has engulfed a key U.S. ally in Asia. NPR's Anthony Kuhn was with protesters awaiting the verdict and he joins us now. Hi, Anthony.
ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: Hey, Leila.
FADEL: So just describe the scene in Seoul today.
KUHN: Well, you know, the political protests have been going on since December almost nonstop, and they culminated in today. There were about 14,000 police and law enforcers on the street. The area around the courthouse was cordoned off. Luckily, there was no violence, but emotions on both sides were very high. I visited both pro- and anti-Yoon camps, and I spoke to an 82-year-old marine veteran named Park Hwang Jae (ph). He's a Yoon supporter. He was upset about the result, and he said he looks to the U.S. for help. Let's hear him.
PARK HWANG JAE: (Non-English language spoken).
KUHN: "In the future, President Trump must create some kind of opportunity to drastically change the Republic of Korea," he told me. "If we continue like this, we will be communized. We are on the verge of becoming communist." Now, there's no sign of South Korea immediately becoming communist, but that's certainly a fear among South Korean conservatives.
FADEL: But the court ruling was unanimous. What did it say?
KUHN: Well, it said that Yoon had violated the constitution by declaring martial law without a valid legal basis. Yoon had argued that he had to declare martial law because opposition politicians were paralyzing government. He also alleged vote rigging. The court said that these reasons didn't make the cut. They also said that he violated the constitution by sending troops to prevent lawmakers from voting against his decree, essentially erasing checks and balances on his power.
FADEL: Now, Yoon is out of office. Why doesn't that end the crisis?
KUHN: Well, some problems are just not going to go away with this verdict, one of the biggest ones being the problem of extreme political polarization that plagues South Korea. There's a declining trust in institutions, courts, media, branches of government - probably this court ruling as well - and the idea that it's OK to flout the law and the constitution and the rules of a democracy as long as it's your side that's doing it. Now, South Korea was under military rule for more than 25 years up until 1988. And people thought this sort of authoritarian behavior, like this martial law, was consigned to the history books. But Yoon attempted what some political scientists say was a self-coup, an attempt to remove these checks and balances. And South Koreans have been widely praised for being quick to defend their democracy, but the damage to the country's reputation has been done.
FADEL: Now, what impact could this all have on American foreign policy in Asia?
KUHN: Well, the U.S. government invested a lot of political capital in Yoon Suk Yeol. And he helped the U.S. out by putting aside historical feuds with Japan and building this three-way cooperation to deal with North Korea and, to a lesser extent, China. Now that fragile detente between Seoul and Tokyo is looking pretty wobbly. And the front-runner to replace Yoon is an opposition leader named Lee Jae-myung. He's a progressive. He's more skeptical about the U.S. and Japan, and he's more in favor of engaging China and North Korea. That could mean difficulty if the U.S. plans to rally its allies to confront China. But if President Trump decides to resume diplomacy with North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Un, Lee Jae-myung could possibly serve as a broker or a bridge in that effort.
FADEL: That's NPR's Anthony Kuhn joining us from Seoul. Thank you, Anthony.
KUHN: Thank you, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
