Ousting a president

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 8th of April.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up first: South Korea, following the ouster of the president.

SOUND: (Cheering)

Celebrations erupted in the capital city of Seoul on Friday … as the nation’s top court ousted

President Yoon Suk-Yeol. It’s a dramatic end to a constitutional battle triggered when Yoon declared martial law in December.

REICHARD: Lawmakers quickly impeached him and now the court has made it final.

Joining us now to talk about it is Will Inboden. He’s a former member of the National Security Council staff, and now teaches at the University of Florida. Will, good morning.

WILL INBODEN, GUEST: Good morning, Mary, great to be with you.

REICHARD: Well, let's start with some background on Yoon Suk-Yeol. Before he became president, he was a lawyer, a government prosecutor who helped to build the case to impeach a previous president of South Korea. How did he get from there to himself becoming president?

INBODEN: Yeah, so I think he had built up some credibility with the voters of South Korea, and obviously was, you know, an accomplished legal professional. And, you know, South Korea is still a relatively young democracy. They only transitioned from a military dictatorship to a democracy in the late 80s. So this is just really kind of the second generation of democratic leadership. And the voters thought that he had a good track record and a compelling vision as president. You know, his predecessor had been more of the left and had taken a softer line towards China and North Korea, their adversary. So there were a lot of hopes, particularly among conservatives, that as president, President Yoon would be a strong and stable hand, but unfortunately that has not turned out to be the case.

REICHARD: Well, Friday's decision to remove Yoon came after he declared martial law in December, and he used the military and the police to try to block the opposition party from taking control of parliament after the opposition won an earlier election. Now, is there more going on in South Korea for Yoon to decide to take the law into his own hands like this?

INBODEN: It was a pretty egregious misstep on his part. I mean, yeah, I think he has some legitimate frustrations with some of the tactics that the left had used, but it primarily just seemed to be his desire for more power, his refusal to accept the elections, which had given a fairly strong majority to the more left -wing party in parliament there. And as I mentioned with South Korea, being a relatively young democracy, and there previously had been a tradition of military rule, but that's exactly why I think people reacted so strongly. It was a pretty, like I said, it was a pretty egregious step and overcompensation on his part to declare martial law, to try to invoke the military as his supporters. That was not the traditional way of resolving political differences in a democracy when they should be done peacefully and through the standard processes. So he unfortunately really discredited himself and his party quite a bit with that move.

REICHARD: Well, now he's been impeached, arrested and removed from office, what does this tell you about the state of democracy in South Korea?

INBODEN: Yeah, I think we're still somewhat in the crucible, but it's notable that their version of the Supreme Court stepped in and validated the impeachment and removal of office. And he has publicly repented and apologized for what he has done, and does seem to be peacefully leaving office. And so they've got a Caretaker acting president right now and they're going to do national elections within the next next two months I think and so I think we can you know, at least as of this juncture say it's a a success story for the institutions of democracy holding, holding strong even when they are really really tested by like I said him him going way outside the bounds and opposing martial law.

REICHARD: Now before we go, let's talk a little bit about North Korea. What has its authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un been doing while attention's been focused south?

INBODEN: Yeah, this is a good reminder, Mary, for our listeners on just why South Korea matters so much is, you know, partly because of that threat from North Korea, but South Korea is a very important formal ally of the United States. They're an important economic partner of the 12th largest economy in the world. And, you know, we have 30,000 American troops stationed there. And, you know, our troops are there both to help deter an attack from North Korea and also to help counter the growing menace menace from China. And so the Korean Peninsula is sometimes called the cockpit of Asia because it's kind of in the fulcrum of, you know, traditional conflicts in the region and the contest over power politics in the entire region. And so North Korea, one of the most vicious repressive communist dictatorships in the world now in its third generation of dictator under the Kim family with Kim Jong Un has been, I think, relishing the political instability in the South. Kim has very much consolidated his power. He's deepened his partnership with China and Russia and Iran. He's sent quite a few troops to Ukraine fighting alongside the Russians as part of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. And he has tightened the repression of his own people. You know, over the last year, they've been a little bit of an opening, a little bit more trade across the North Korean border, but he's really, he's really tightened that up. And he's advancing his nuclear weapons program, including ballistic missiles that can now hit the United States. And so the threat from North Korea is significant towards South Korea and towards the United States. And that's another reason that we as Americans should hope that South Korea is able to get through this political turmoil, restore political stability, and kind of reestablish the the firmness of its ties with the United States.

REICHARD: Well, are there any other stories in Asia that you're watching?

INBODEN: Well, you know, one other thing I think it's still on South Korea that bears our our listeners remembering is there's a very strong church population. There's a very strong Christian population in South Korea. It's got one of the highest percentages of, you know, committed Christians of of any industrialized democracy in the world. They send out lots of missionaries, the church played a very key role, along with the Reagan administration, frankly, in the 1980s in South Korea's transition to democracy. And so just thinking about solidarity with our fellow Christians, we should be also concerned with what is happening in South Korea there, and certainly support their continued commitment to their own democracy.

And then of course, I mentioned earlier, the other big story is China, right? The growing aggression that China is showing towards Taiwan, they're doing a new round of military drills, seems to be practiced towards a possible blockade or invasion of Taiwan. Of course, with President Trump's new round of tariffs, those are causing a lot of instability in the region with financial markets crashing, stock markets crashing, and a growing trade war. And that's certainly making America's allies nervous, especially in Australia in South Korea and in Japan. So there's just a lot of ferment and instability in Asia right now. Yet another reason we want to hope for a restoration of stability in South Korea since we need them.

REICHARD: Will Inboden is a former member of the National Security Council staff and now a professor at the University of Florida. Will, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

INBODEN: Thank you, Mary.

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