Martial law in South Korea tests Biden and a key US alliance

WASHINGTON – For decades, South Korea has been one of the most important US allies in Asia – not only because nearly 30,000 US troops are stationed there, but also because it stands as a beacon of democracy in a region where powerful authoritarian nations vie with democratic ones.

US President Joe Biden has put a special emphasis on South Korea, choosing it as the first non-US site for his annual international conclave, the Summit for Democracy. And in 2023, he hosted President Yoon Suk Yeol for a state dinner at the White House, where the tuxedo-clad Yoon sang “American Pie” to an adoring audience.

Mr Biden has also relied on Mr Yoon to provide munitions for Ukraine’s defence against the Russian invasion.

Now, with

Mr Yoon having imposed martial law

after wildly accusing the opposition party of conspiring with North Korea to undermine him, the American relationship with South Korea could face its biggest test in decades.

And Mr Biden, who has used democracy versus autocracy as a defining framework of his foreign policy, will have to make hard choices on how to handle the crisis, after years of cultivating relations with Yoon, a conservative leader, and enhancing military ties to better counter China, North Korea and Russia.

Mr Yoon’s move appeared to catch the Biden administration by surprise. Hosting Mr Yoon at the White House in April 2023, Mr Biden told him that the two men “both understand that our democracies and our people are our greatest sources of strength”.

On Dec 3 afternoon in Washington, the White House National Security Council released a terse statement, using an abbreviation for South Korea’s formal name, the Republic of Korea: “The administration is in contact with the ROK government and is monitoring the situation closely as we work to learn more. The US was not notified in advance of this announcement. We are seriously concerned by the developments we are seeing on the ground in the ROK.”

Officials said that aides had briefed Mr Biden, who was visiting Angola.

Events moved quickly in Seoul early on Dec 4. The

National Assembly voted to end martial law,

and members of Mr Yoon’s party did not come out in support of him, prompting him to back down.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement hours later that he welcomed Mr Yoon’s rescinding of the order, and he reaffirmed support for the Korean people and for the US-South Korea alliance “based on shared principles of democracy and the rule of law”.

But analysts said they expected weeks of political conflict, including possible impeachment proceedings against Mr Yoon.

“It was a gamble he took to try to impose political control at a time when he feels frustrated by his inability to carry out his vision for the country,” said Ms Jean H. Lee, a Korea expert at the East-West Center in Hawaii.

“But at the end of the day,” she added, “President Yoon values South Korea’s alliance with the United States, its place in the world as a leading global economy and its reputation as a vibrant democracy in Asia.”

South Korea had long periods of military rule after the Korean War halted with an armistice in 1953, and it did not become a democracy until 1987.

There was speculation in Washington that Mr Yoon might have chosen this moment because the US government is in a transition from the Biden administration to the second Trump one and because Mr Biden is overseas.

Mr Yoon, a first-term president who barely won the 2022 election, has a low approval rating, and his move against the opposition party and the legislature has echoes of the effort by Donald Trump to prevent Mr Biden from taking office after he won the 2020 election.

Trump had no immediate reaction on Dec 3, and it is unclear how he might view Yoon’s move. The South Korean leader has been determined to court Trump, who often gripes that Seoul should pay Washington billions more for the presence of American troops. Mr Yoon’s office even disclosed that he was working on his long-dormant golf game so that he could hit the links with Trump.

At a US-Japan diplomatic event in Washington, Mr Kurt Campbell, the deputy secretary of state and former Asia adviser to Mr Biden, said that “our alliance with the ROK is ironclad, and we stand by Korea in their time of uncertainty”.

He added that “we have every hope and expectation that any political disputes will be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law”.

Mr Joseph Yun, a former ambassador and special envoy for North Korea in the Trump administration, said in an interview that Mr Yoon’s move was an earthquake in domestic politics and would raise doubts about him among allied nations.

“This is a big indictment domestically and internationally of Yoon’s judgment,” he said.

The upheaval is particularly stinging for an American president who has made the promotion of democracy one of his top priorities, in part because of the rise of anti-democratic forces in the United States. Seoul hosted 2024’s installment of the global democracy summit that Mr Biden launched three years ago.

The declaration of martial law also raises questions about what the Pentagon might do in an unstable South Korea with its nearly 30,000 troops and assets in the country. United States Forces Korea operates under the Indo-Pacific Command and in coordination with the South Korean military. American soldiers are posted by the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea and in bases elsewhere in South Korea, including in Seoul, where US soldiers walk the streets in uniform.

One of Mr Biden’s main strategies for trying to establish deterrence against China and North Korea has been to build up military relations with allies in Asia. He established a new trilateral security partnership with South Korea and Japan. In 2023, he hosted Mr Yoon and Mr Fumio Kishida, then the prime minister of Japan, at Camp David in Maryland to announce the new arrangement, an important achievement given the historical enmity between South Korea and Japan.

Mr Biden called the two nations “capable and indispensable allies”.

In his remarks, Mr Yoon said that “the ties between our three countries, which are the most advanced liberal democracies in the region and major economies leading advanced technology and scientific innovation, are more important than ever”.

The three nations, he added, have proclaimed they “will bolster the rules-based international order and play key roles to enhance regional security and prosperity based on our shared values of freedom, human rights and rule of law”. NYTIMES