Since he assumed the presidency, Yoon Suk-yeol, whose martial law declaration in December 2024 resulted in his impeachment last month, had clearly demonstrated the risk of having a president who has no prior experience in politics is. He repeatedly accused the opposition of being “anti-state forces” while vehemently standing against the media when negative reports appeared.
Only months after he became president, Yoon became embroiled in a hot-mic scandal during a trip to New York, which showed his inexperience and incapability in diplomacy. A sizable majority of the public heard Yoon say something about then-U.S. President Joe Biden – something his staff vehemently denied, instead offering up an innocuous lip-reading. Following the reports about this scandal from MBC, one of South Korea’s main media outlets, Yoon was swift to retaliate.
This was exactly opposite to his pre-election promises. Yoon had pledged to be a press-friendly president during his presidential campaign, but that stance lasted less than a year since he did not allow reporters to actively ask questions that he may feel uncomfortable with.
In a similar vein, Yoon repeatedly emphasized the importance of boosting the country’s democracy – yet he was the one to issue a martial law declaration that would have disbanded the National Assembly, banned all political activity, and forced the media under presidential control.
Yoon could not accept opposition or criticism, despite the fact that he won the 2022 presidential election against Lee Jae-myung, who will likely become his successor in June, by just 0.7 percentage points – the narrowest margin in the history of South Korea’s direct presidential election system.
Although Lee’s Democratic Party controlled the National Assembly when Yoon became president, he had a chance to help his People Power Party retake a legislative majority. Instead, Yoon’s actions rather boosted support for the DP in the 2024 general elections.
Generally, in South Korea the ruling party tends to win general or local elections when they are held within two years from when the president assumed office. However, Yoon’s PPP lost more seats in the elections. That should have led to introspection and chance on Yoon’s part. Instead, he chose to believe far-right extremists’ claims that the elections were rigged by the Democratic Party and pro-Chinese figures.
Rather than working with the opposition parties within the bounds of South Korea’s democratic system, Yoon chose to suppress them by declaring martial law. By labeling the DP anti-state and pro-North Korean forces, Yoon clearly divided the country into two groups: his supporters, who are supposedly defending the country from pro-Chinese and pro-North Korean forces, and everyone else who has different thoughts on his policy or initiatives.
Considering his approval ratings before he declared martial law in December, the majority of the public would have fit the bill of “anti-state forces” from Yoon’s perspective.
In this context, South Korea has severely been polarized with no room for compromise or collaboration. For the DP, it is unacceptable to work with the PPP, as the party officially opposed the impeachment of Yoon and defended his unconstitutional attempt to suppress the opposition by using military power and forces. For the PPP, it is simply unacceptable to see Lee become the next president of South Korea as his election may create an unprecedentedly favorable environment for the DP. The party will be able to initiate whatever policies it wants, as the DP already holds a sizable majority in the National Assembly.
This sentiment is clearly reflected in comments from both parties’ supporters.
“In order to eradicate the treasonous forces in this country, Lee and the Democratic Party should never consider working with the People Power Party,” Hong Yong-geun, a company worker in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, told The Diplomat. “In light of what Yoon did on December 3, impeaching him was not even questionable but I was really shocked when the People Power Party lawmakers left the plenary chamber on December 7 to block the opposition parties’ attempt to impeach Yoon,” Hong added.
Like Hong, DP supporters now view the PPP as the far-right party in the wake of its failure to draw a line between itself and Yoon. This perception was behind Lee’s remarks that his party will now function as South Korea’s centrist-conservative party – which brought some backlash from supporters who have long believed that the DP is a leftist party. However, Lee’s approach seems to have worked as some conservative figures and groups have publicly expressed their support for him.
“I have always thought that the PPP is not a conservative party. And I support Lee and the DP’s attempts to cover the supporting base of conservatives,” Hong said.
Meanwhile, the PPP has stuck with its conventional strategy of accusing the opposition of being pro-Chinese or pro-North Korean so as to consolidate its support from the core party members who are mostly based in the south-eastern part of the country. In its presidential primary, the PPP elected Kim Moon-soo, the former labor minister for Yoon who defended the martial law imposition. In doing so, the party clearly showed its stance on the impeachment and the consequences of Yoon’s removal. In this context, most of those who express support for Kim also defend Yoon’s attempt to control the country with martial law.
“Yoon had no choice but to impose martial law due to the DP’s ceaseless attempts to impeach his Cabinet members,” Han Kang-hyeok, 69, told The Diplomat. “If Lee Jae-myung becomes the president, he will make this country like Venezuela,” Han added.
Amid the PPP’s fear that Lee will seek vengeance once in office, Lee has vowed to focus on integrating the country. With the public’s growing hope to heal the severely divided country, the next administration’s top priority will likely be working with a broader group of people regardless of their ideologies.
