The president was in the dark, but the soldiers kept in touch.
The head-spinning events Tuesday in South Korea, where President Yoon Suk Yeol invoked martial law in a midnight speech and reversed himself hours later in the face of a furious nationwide backlash, presented a dilemma for the Biden administration. Top officials said they had no clue of the political turmoil about to explode in a critical East Asian democratic ally and were scrambling at the end of the day to determine where Seoul and the U.S.-South Korean alliance go from here.
In the middle of a tour of southern Africa, President Biden did not comment on the day’s events except to acknowledge that aides were briefing him. With more than 25,000 American troops stationed on the tense, divided Korean Peninsula, Pentagon officials said they kept close contact with their South Korean counterparts throughout the day.
Mr. Yoon’s ill-conceived martial law declaration proved short-lived but caught the Biden administration off guard. The country hosts thousands of U.S. military personnel who help defend against the threat from a nuclear-armed North Korea and serve as a vital outpost for American military might in the Indo-Pacific theater.
The Biden administration chose South Korea this year to be the first foreign host of Mr. Biden’s signature Summit for Democracy, an initiative designed to unite the democratic nations of the world as a cohesive global force.
Analysts said Mr. Yoon and his military advisers may have been trying clumsily to exploit the vacuum of power in Washington as Mr. Biden prepares to leave office next month. The South Korean president has openly expressed hope of courting President-elect Donald Trump. Widely cited reports said Mr. Yoon was working on his golf game to curry favor with Mr. Trump.
SEE ALSO: Motion for South Korean President Yoon’s impeachment filed; vote expected in days
Washington breathed a sigh of relief when it learned that Mr. Yoon had reversed course and rescinded the martial law decree.
“We are relieved President Yoon has reversed course on his concerning declaration of martial law and respected the [South Korean] National Assembly’s vote to end it,” a U.S. National Security Council spokesperson told ABC News late Tuesday. “Democracy is at the foundation of the [U.S.-South Korean] alliance, and we will continue to monitor the situation.”
Administration officials acknowledged throughout the day that they were struggling to understand the events in Seoul. “The U.S. was not notified in advance of this announcement,” the National Security Council said as news of Mr. Yoon’s power grab broke. We are seriously concerned by the developments we are seeing on the ground” in South Korea.
“We’re seeking to engage our [Republic of Korea] counterparts at every level — both here and in Seoul,” Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told reporters at the State Department. “The president, the national security adviser [and] the secretary of state have all been briefed on developments and are being kept apprised of the situation as it unfolds,” he said.
On Wednesday, the opposition parties issued a motion to impeach Mr. Yoon, which would require the support of two-thirds of parliament and at least six justices of the nine-member Constitutional Court, according to The Associated Press.
At the Pentagon, spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was tracking Mr. Yoon’s clash with opposition lawmakers but that U.S. troops were sitting tight.
SEE ALSO: Yoon backs down after South Korean lawmakers rise up against martial law decree
“We’re closely monitoring, but I’m not aware of any [U.S.] force posture changes,” he said.
Singing guest
The Biden administration had cultivated a strong relationship with Mr. Yoon, who sang “American Pie” while being feted by Mr. Biden at a 2023 White House state dinner in his honor.
More substantively, Mr. Yoon scored points in Washington with his tough line against North Korean aggression and willingness to take political risks to repair relations with Japan, another key U.S. regional ally. Mr. Yoon took part in the trilateral summit with Mr. Biden and then-Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Camp David in August 2023, which was meant to signal a new era of cooperation and collaboration among the three countries.
Complicating the U.S. reaction is South Korea’s vital role in the American security architecture across the region, where China, North Korea and Russia pose substantial challenges to U.S. interests.
About 25,000 American military personnel are assigned to U.S. Forces Korea, including Army, Navy, Air Force, special operations and Space Force personnel. The U.S. also provides a nuclear umbrella to deter a nuclear-armed North Korea from attacking its southern neighbor.
The U.S. military command in South Korea said on its webpage that the American troops were at “Force Protection Condition Bravo,” indicating an increased or more predictable threat of terrorist activity.
U.S. policymakers were caught off guard in large part because there was no indication that the political situation in Seoul, while tense, was anywhere close to breaking long-standing democratic norms. North Korea remains an omnipresent threat, but no specific recent incidents suggested a radical change in Seoul was being contemplated.
“While tensions with North Korea have been high this year, there is no indication that Yoon’s action was in response to any imminent military threat by Pyongyang,” said Bruce Klingner, a former CIA official now with the Asia Study Center at The Heritage Foundation think tank. “The [North Korean] regime is unlikely to take military advantage of the turmoil in South Korea but will glean propaganda victories.”
Mr. Klingner called the martial law declaration a “damning reversal“ to decades of South Korean efforts to put its authoritarian past behind it. Mr. Yoon’s days in office are likely numbered because parties across the political spectrum, including his political base, are likely to be united against him.
“The U.S. must also tread carefully since South Korea remains a critical ally in addressing regional security challenges, including the growing North Korean and Chinese military threats,” Mr. Klingner said.
Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, a retired naval officer now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, said Mr. Yoon’s imposition of martial law was based primarily on his domestic political interests rather than concerns about South Korea’s security.
Unlike past attempts to take over the government, South Korea’s troops mostly stayed in the barracks. Most top military leaders probably share Mr. Yoon’s distrust of South Korea’s media and government officials, Adm. Montgomery said, but not enough to challenge the democratic system in place for more than four decades.
“But that’s just something you deal with. It’s not something you declare martial law for,” he said. “It’s a big win for democracy that the parliament was able to get together and vote [martial law] down.”
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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