Korean lessons on how to deal with insurrectionist presidents
The US might do worse than take lessons from South Korea.
Six days from a second Trump inauguration take a look at South Korea’s handling of the president it impeached for a failed power grab.
Late on Jan 14, South Korean investigators seeking to arrest the impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, over insurrection accusations, clashed with his supporters but persisted. Ordinary South Koreans remain keen to push back against authoritarianism of any kind.
Meanwhile, in the US, former special counsel Jack Smith was reduced to just one sharp but ultimately pointless reflection on his investigation of Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. He would have been convicted, Mr Smith said, had it not been for his 2024 victory.
In other words, the American people saved Mr Trump. As did their government led by Joe Biden.
The Biden administration utterly failed to bring the impeached Mr Trump to account. There was little urgency in the way Merrick Garland, President Biden’s pick for Attorney General, went about his business. Instead of ensuring that Mr Trump’s insurrectionist attempt was held to account, he busied himself with the performative return of the Justice Department to pre-Trump normalcy. By the time a special counsel was appointed to investigate Mr Trump’s role in the Jan 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, people’s memory of and horror at events of that day was fading. By then new political calculations had changed the situation, taking Mr Trump from pariah politician to a defiant fighter spreading a potent “big lie”.
Not so South Korea, thus far. In the 40 days since Mr Yoon’s short-lived declaration of martial law, South Korean politicians and public seem to still hold to their original determination to punish his actions.
Of course, things could yet go very wrong with South Korea’s pursuit of Mr Yoon. He failed to appear at the first hearing in his impeachment trial. And he defied the arrest warrant, with his supporters standing guard outside his residence.
But for now, South Korea’s 101 on how to deal with insurrectionist presidents is a lot better than that of the US.
Originally published at https://www.rashmee.com
