US monitors situation in South Korea after President Yoon declares martial law

The United States said on Tuesday it was “closely” monitoring the situation in South Korea, one of Washington’s closest allies, where President Yoon Suk Yeol declared emergency martial law.

“The Administration is in contact with the ROK government and is monitoring the situation closely,” a spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council said, using the official acronym for the Republic of Korea.

Washington stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect it from North Korea, its nuclear-armed neighbor.

The United States and South Korea have long carried out joint exercises, infuriating the North, which views them as rehearsals for invasion and has frequently conducted weapons tests in retaliation.

US President Joe Biden has also fostered the relationship between Washington, Seoul and Tokyo as a bulwark against both North Korea and an increasingly assertive China.

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol declared emergency martial law, saying the step was necessary to protect the country from “communist forces” amid parliamentary wrangling over a budget bill.

“To safeguard a liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and to eliminate anti-state elements… I hereby declare emergency martial law,” Yoon said in a live televised address to the nation.

“With no regard for the livelihoods of the people, the opposition party has paralysed governance solely for the sake of impeachments, special investigations, and shielding their leader from justice,” he added.

The surprise move comes as Yoon’s People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party continue to bicker over next year’s budget bill. Opposition MPs last week approved a significantly downsized budget plan through a parliamentary committee.

“Our National Assembly has become a haven for criminals, a den of legislative dictatorship that seeks to paralyse the judicial and administrative systems and overturn our liberal democratic order,” Yoon said.

He accused opposition lawmakers of cutting “all key budgets essential to the nation’s core functions, such as combatting drug crimes and maintaining public security… turning the country into a drug haven and a state of public safety chaos.”

Yoon went on to label the opposition, which holds a majority in the 300-member parliament, as “anti-state forces intent on overthrowing the regime” and called his decision “inevitable”.

“I will restore the country to normalcy by getting rid of anti-state forces as soon as possible.”