Tag: south korea

South Korea Gets Its Fourth President in Five Months

Education Minister Lee Ju-ho became the fourth president of South Korea since December on Friday after a turbulent 2025 that began with protests for and against the arrest of ousted former President Yoon Suk-yeol.

The South Korean government baffled international partners in the past 24 hours after acting President Han Duck-soo resigned on Thursday to prepare for a campaign in the June 3 special election to replace Yoon. Officials announced that Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, who had already been president after Han was impeached in December, would replace Han temporarily, but Choi abruptly resigned, as well, leaving Lee as the chief executive of the country.

The wave of resignations and questions from international observers made for a confusing first day in office for Lee, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported, noting that the day began with an emergency cabinet meeting that participants were initially unsure was even legal. The various resignations meant the cabinet was too small to make quorum, raising legal questions that Seoul ultimately decided had been decided in favor of a meeting by past precedent.

The current chaos began when Yoon, elected in a deeply bitter election in 2022, announced on the night of December 3 that he would abruptly impose martial law on the country in response to the left-wing Democratic Party obstructing his agenda at the National Assembly, the federal lawmaking body. Yoon accused the Democrats of working with “North Korean communist forces” and attempting to overthrow the “constitutional order.”

The martial law decree lasted mere hours as National Assembly lawmakers stormed legislative chambers to organize an emergency vote against military rule. While lawmakers can legally vote down martial law, the martial law decree also meant that political activity, including legislative votes, was not legal, so lawmakers had to elbow past rows of heavily armed soldiers to organize the vote, the latter whom did not take much action to prevent the political figures from achieving their goal.

Following the end of martial law less than 24 hours after it was implemented, Yoon apologized, but the National Assembly voted to impeach him regardless. Han Duck-soo became acting president and was immediately impeached for allegedly taking too long to expedite Yoon’s impeachment case, leaving Choi as the acting president.

While Han defeated the case for his impeachment, Yoon did not, and was removed from the presidency. South Koreans will vote for his replacement on June 3.

Han resigned on Thursday to prepare a campaign to run in that election.

“Thinking of the weight of the responsibility I carry at this grave time, after thinking long and carefully about whether such a decision is in fact right and inevitable,” he declared on Thursday, “I decided that if this is the only way, I must take it.”

Keep reading

South Korea to launch fourth military spy satellite this week

South Korea plans to launch its fourth military reconnaissance satellite from a U.S. space base this week, the Ministry of National Defense said Monday, as the country seeks to better monitor North Korean threats with independent surveillance capabilities.
 
The military plans to launch the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 8:48 p.m. on Monday, according to the ministry.
 
The launch will be part of South Korea’s plan to deploy five satellites by the end of this year to enhance surveillance of North Korean military activities and help reduce its reliance on U.S. satellite imagery.

Keep reading

Why some US elites want South Korea to be a ‘dictatorship for democracy’

Morse Tan, a high-ranking former US State Department official, let the cat out of the bag on the US ruling elite position on South Korea’s martial law.

He declared that President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law to “preserve democracy”. At a rally in South Korea, Tan said:

President Yoon declared martial law, and it is to preserve your democracy, that this country was made, and exists, by you, and for you, that President Yoon stuck out his neck, in a heroic way, and stood up to awaken this country, to the realities of what are going on in this country.

Having previously labeled South Korea a model democracy, this is a No-Scotsman-move taken to absurdity.

Tan also openly threatened South Korea’s government against upholding Yoon’s impeachment. Writing for the global news agency UPI on March 18, he warned:

Removing Yoon may trigger Section 7008 punishments from the United States government, which can include the elimination of: Bilateral Economic Assistance (III), International Security Assistance (IV), Multilateral Assistance (V), and Export and Investment Assistance (VI).

The US applies Section 7008 when a country is deemed to have undergone a military coup, or a coup d’etat “where the military has played a significant role”. Under those circumstances, critical aid is withdrawn from the country. It is an extreme measure — the political equivalent of banishment and excommunication — exercised against a state.

If Tan’s threats are material, South Korea risks being grouped with Myanmar, Gabon, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Sudan — other countries currently under section 7008 listing. Notice the explicit use of the word “punishment”.

Now Tan is not a current US government official, buthe is an indicator of what the US national security state is thinking, in particular, what its neoconservative wing is thinking. Tan also recently claimed that “the impeachment against Yoon is an insurrection” led by opposition party leader Lee Jae Myung, “who wants to turn the country over to the Chinese communists”.

As absurd and conspiratorial as these allegations sound, these are actually finely tuned and well-honed Washington-CPAC talking points about Chinese threats and interference in Korea, and they are echoed endlessly, if histrionically, by US flag-waving foot soldiers at South Korean protests and on YouTube.

These anti-China messages were also repeated in German State TV ARD’s documentary “Staatskrise im Schatten von China und Nordkorea” (State Crisis in the Shadow of China and North Korea), released to its German public television website on February 25. The documentary claimed that China had hacked South Korea’s legislative election to put the opposition DP party into power, which is now taking orders from North Korea and China to impeach Yoon.

There is clearly a highly convergent and disciplined campaign of anti-China propaganda around the impeachment. ARD removed its documentary, but the damage has clearly been done.

It’s impossible not to highlight the absurdity of Tan’s statement that “Yoon declared martial law (i.e. military dictatorship) to preserve democracy”. And, as a foreign national, Tan is breaking South Korean law by directly participating in domestic Korean politics. But the free rein he is given, and the lack of disavowal or reprimand from the State Department – if only for his own safety – is very revealing.

Keep reading

British influencer, 29, is fighting for her life in South Korea after mysteriously being found unconscious with organ failure

A British influencer is fighting for life in a South Korean hospital after mysteriously being found unconscious in her apartment with a black eye and severe dehydration.

Content creator Ashley Surcombe, 29, was found by police who broke in, after her worried parents Nigel and Karen contacted them via a friend, when she failed to reply to messages and calls.

Paramedics rushed her to hospital, and she is currently in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Seoul suffering from severe dehydration and multiple organ failure.

Ashley – who has been living in South Korea for five years – is originally from Evesham and her distraught father has flown out to be by her bedside.

She was found on Monday after a friend of the family contacted police on their behalf, and officers entered her apartment and found her on the bathroom floor.

There were no signs of a forced entry and Ashley lived on her own.

Worried sister Kat Surcombe, 33, an aerospace engineer said: ‘We just don’t know what happened and we are trying to find out exactly, but it’s been difficult, and we have had to rely on contacts out there.

‘She was found unresponsive and unconscious on the floor; she didn’t have any broken bones, but she was severely dehydrated and has major organ failure.

‘About a week ago she told us she she hit her head against the door and got a nasty bruise on her eye.

‘Her blood sugar levels are very low and when we spoke with her on Saturday, she seemed confused, and you could barely see her lips she was so dehydrated.

‘We were supposed to speak with her at 8pm on Sunday (Korean time) but she never answered, and we didn’t get any response from messages so that’s when we called police through a friend of my dad who has contacts out there.

‘When they heard back that she was in hospital it was just horrible as we felt so helpless and so far away.’

Ashley is well known as a content creator in the UK and has over a million followers across her social media pages.

Ashley – who is fluent in Korean – had been planning to travel across the country and Southeast Asia and write up her experiences for her social media.

But the plan has now been put on hold as there is no indication as to when she may be released, and her family are now having to deal with spiralling hospital bills as Ashley’s insurance had expired.

Kat explained that an ICU stay is £1,500 a day and once stabilised that will drop to £500 plus tests including X rays, blood tests and scans have cost £100,00.

Keep reading

South Korean F-16s Just Bombed A Town By Accident

Apair of F-16 fighters operated by the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) accidentally bombed a civilian area during a live-fire military exercise today. The incident took place ahead of large-scale joint maneuvers with U.S. forces in South Korea, the first of their kind since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

At 10:04 a.m. local time this morning, two ROKAF F-16s dropped eight 500-pound Mk 82 bombs, all of which detonated. The point of impact was the city of Pocheon, around 20 miles south of the heavily militarized border with North Korea and 25 miles north of the South Korean capital, Seoul.

It seems the intended target was the Seungjin Fire Training Field close to Pocheon, which today hosted a live-fire exercise involving K2 tanks, K55A1 self-propelled howitzers, AH-64 attack helicopters, and F-35A stealth fighters.

Keep reading

Impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol Surrenders to Investigators To Avoid Bloodshed Between Police and Presidential Guard During Second Attempt To Arrest Him

The political instability in Seoul continues as news arises that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has been arrested in a second attempt by the police authorities, six weeks after his short-lived attempt to impose martial law and 10 days after a first failed arrest attempt.

Sky News reported:

“A motorcade of black SUVs was seen leaving the gates of his hillside residence where he had been holed up for weeks behind barbed wire and a small army of personal security.

Mr Yoon said the “rule of law has completely collapsed” in a video message recorded before he was escorted to the headquarters of an anti-corruption agency. He said he was complying with the detention warrant to prevent clashes between police and the presidential security service.”

Keep reading

Sue Mi Terry: When FARA Applies to US Allies

Last week, I wrote a detailed analysis of how the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (FARA) has become a tool of government overreach, often used selectively to stigmatize inconvenient voices, control narratives, and criminalize ordinary interactions with foreign entities. Today, I explore how Dr. Sue Mi Terry’s recent indictment under FARA flips the script: a career insider and former CIA analyst accused of failing to register as a “foreign agent” of South Korea, one of America’s closest allies. Her case is both troubling and perplexing, highlighting the selective enforcement of FARA and its chilling effect on intellectual freedom and open exchange – principles essential to democracy.

Dr. Terry is not a natural candidate for libertarian sympathies. A staunch advocate of hawkish policies on North Korea, she has spent her career in Washington’s revolving door of government and think tanks. Adding to the irony, her husband, columnist Max Boot, once wrote that “Washington should ramp up enforcement” of FARA, a sentiment that now feels uncomfortably prophetic. While it might be tempting to indulge in a bit of schadenfreude, this isn’t a Menendez-style tale of gold bars and hidden cash. It’s a case built on think-tank funding and diplomatic dinners, routine activities in Washington’s policy circles.

What makes this case alarming isn’t the behavior itself, which, while ethically debatable, is typical for Washington. What is troubling is the inconsistent enforcement of FARA, a law so vague and expansive it can be used to target virtually anyone. Just as bookkeeping errors have been elevated to secure felony convictions against political opponents or tax evasion infamously took down Al Capone, FARA allows the government to transform minor infractions into significant criminal liabilities. Terry now faces up to a decade in prison – not for harming U.S. interests, but for failing to dot every “i” and cross every “t.”

Her case may be an exception but underscores a broader truth: FARA’s misuse threatens intellectual freedom, open dialogue, and fairness. Principles must outweigh personalities – even when the target is someone whose politics we may vehemently oppose. If the government can do this to a well-connected insider, what chance does anyone else have?

Keep reading

A HOUSE DIVIDED: South Korean Investigators Face Standoff With Military Trying To Execute Warrant To Arrest President Yoon Suk Yeol and Search His Residence

A clash of different authorities resulted in a dangerous standoff today (3) in South Korea’s capital Seoul, military personnel blocked police investigators from arresting impeached president Yoon at his residence.

Yonhap News agency reported that Investigators attempting to detain Yoon were able to enter the presidential residence compound but were blocked by the Presidential Guard military unit.

Sputnik reported:

“Earlier, Yonhap stated that investigators from South Korea’s Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) had entered the presidential residence on Friday to execute a detention warrant for impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol.

‘The team executing the warrant comprises 30 people from the CIO and 120 police personnel, with 70 waiting outside the residence compound’, the report stated.”

Keep reading

Is Biden hiding how and why martial law was declared on South Korea?

On December 3rd, Toronto’s The Globe and Mail headlined “South Korea’s President declares martial law, accuses opposition of anti-state activities”, and later that day headlined “South Korean parliament votes to defy president by lifting his declaration of martial law”; but, since then, the crisis has only gotten worse, and will certainly need South Korea’s U.S.-controlled Constitution to be changed. As Hanjoo Lee pointed out on page 262 in the “CONCLUSION” to his Spring 2007 Ph.D thesis, The Major Influences of the U.S. Constitutional Law Doctrines on the Interpretation and Application of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea: Critical Analysis on the Current Constitutional Court’s Decisions and Thoughts of the Necessity of Amendment of the Current Constitution of the Republic of Korea, “The Korean experience aptly shows that political changes precede legal changes. [This profound principle means that before there is even a Constitution, there is politics and political power — the decisions that were made by the individuals who held political power. A constitution doesn’t come from nowhere and no one, but from the possessors of political power, who actually shaped it.] … Cold war ideology based on a zero-sum mentality is outdated. These trends demand new ways of thinking.” Though veiled (for example, his “zero-sum” was a powerful condemnation of America’s demands for South Korea to be even more intensely anti-North-Korea and anti-China and anti-Russia than it is), his implication was clear, that South Korea must break out of the empire of which is a part (a colony), the U.S. empire, before it can TRULY become a democracy. Now, nearly 18 years later, Lee’s analysis is being proven to have been prophetic.

Keep reading

South Korean Court Issues Arrest Warrant Against Impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol Over Martial Law Attempt

In the midst of heightened tensions with their neighbors to the North of the peninsula, South Korea is going through a phase of instability, with a short-lived Martial law being imposed, and not one, but two Presidents impeached by Parliament.

Now, to cap it off, a Seoul court has issued an arrest warrant against South Korea’s suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol over his failed martial law stunt back on 3 December.

BBC reported:

“The warrant comes after Yoon, who is facing several investigations on insurrection and treason charges, ignored three summonses to appear for questioning over the past two weeks.

On Sunday night, investigators sought an arrest warrant for Yoon on charges of insurrection and abuse of power – a move that his lawyer described as ‘illegal’.”

Keep reading