I did not see this coming: “South Korea’s president declares emergency martial law”, reports the BBC.
Yoon Suk Yeol, the South Korean president, is quoted as saying, “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.”
Sounds like projection to me.
Can anyone explain what is going on? Is there really any more of a threat from North Korea than there always is, or is it all to do with domestic politics?
Update: Lawmakers in South Korea vote to lift the martial law decree. The Guardian link says,
South Korea’s parliament, with 190 of its 300 members present, just passed a motion requiring the martial law declared by President Yoon Suk Yeol to be lifted.
All 190 lawmakers present voted to lift the measure, according to CNN.
Much depends on which 190 lawmakers were present. If the very fact that they were still in the parliament building after martial law was declared was because they they were from the opposition, President Yoon will dismiss it – although the 190 being an absolute majority of South Korea’s MPs does give their vote moral weight.
If it was a broad spread of MPs from several parties, this vote might mean the end of the coup. Either way, it is troubling to realise that a country that everyone thought was a stable democracy isn’t.
Did democracy stop being cool or something?
I too would very much like it if someone could explain what is going on. A quick perusal – quick is best because you tend not to get any contradictory accounts – reveals that no one has a clue. Not even South Koreans.
I think it boils down to whether the majority party in parliament is a bunch of North Korean agents or not.
Like Charles the First – the President of South Korea had his soldiers march into Parliament, but then (also like Charles the First) they did not do anything – and left again.
Either kill men or treat them with respect – do not insult them and let them live (indeed leave in confusion) Machiavelli.
Brendan Westbridge – the background?
The background is that Republic of Korea is no longer the success it once was.
Aristotle’s basic rules are disregarded – for example policies have been adopted by the state which have led to the fertility rate utterly collapsing over the years, which violates the teachings of Aristotle (and Confucius) on the family and the basic roles of men and women.
Enemies of South Korea (North Korea and China) have been allowed to come to dominate the education system and the media = again violating the teaching of Aristotle (and others) that the basic institutions of society must be in the hands of people loyal to the nation.
And the people have been taught to look to the state for benefits and services – and I stress taught-to as this was not a demand from below, it was an ideology pushed from above (by the “educated” elite).
American conservatives often seem to think that countries like South Korea or Taiwan are like American “Red States”, say Wyoming or South Dakota. They once have been like that – back in the day, but they are not like that now.
Although they still have a hard working and intelligent population (not the Third World types who infest so many American cities) countries such as South Korea and Taiwan are rather more like Democrat States in terms of social policies (although not in terms of crippling taxation) – there are few children now, and the media and education system pump out “Progressive” messages (like American schools and universities do – but the American schools and universities are lazy and incompetent, the Asian ones are hard working and intelligent – which is actually a Bad Thing in this context – because it means they are better at pumping out collectivist propaganda).
I can understand why the President of the Republic of Korea “lashed out” as he sees his nation being subverted – knowing that it will soon be a puppet of the People’s Republic of China Communist Party regime, but he had no-real-plan – and now looks like an idiot.
When Charles the First marched his soldiers into the House of Commons only for them not to do anything – because they were only after five specific traitors and they had left, he also looked like an idiot. The other Members of the House of Commons shouted abuse and the mob rioted – and Charles had to flee,
Charles had already sacrificed his closest ally – allowing Parliament to murder him, so it was clear that Charles had no real plan (if Charles was a clear thinker he would never have called Parliament – which allowed his enemies to organize against him, just as Louis XVI made a fatal mistake by calling an Estates General – he did not have to do that, and it gave his enemies an alternative source of authority).
Neither, it seems, does the President of the Republic of Korea – he had no clear plan to deal with his enemies, and so his stroke will not defeat his enemies, it will defeat himself.
The opposition controlled Parliament, like the media, the education system, and so on, will sell out South Korea to the People’s Republic of China. I do not see how that can be prevented now.
A relative in Navel Int tells me their departmental summarized conclusion is that SK is becoming more and more socialist, and Yoon Suk Yeol is reacting badly to that.
They predict he will be taking a well-needed rest soon.
This is interesting:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gd5GLqQXkAEbO7u?format=jpg&name=900×900
If something similar happens in Taiwan and guess who re-establishes “order” we is all fucked.
Is “North Korean agent” just the South Korean version of calling your opponent “Hitler” when they disagree with you?
I’m not a fan of Socialism, but just because someone is Socialist is no reason to believe they are a foreign agent. It would seem particularly unlikely in Korea, who keep very close tabs on North Korean infiltration.
The suspicion that the US alliance raises the danger of North Korea doing something stupid is not a totally unreasonable view. Losing the Americans would lower the political temperature considerably. The key is knowing if the North Korean military is as rotten as the Russian one was when it invaded Ukraine, which I suspect it is, and whether Kim looks at Putin’s adventure and realises that invading the south would also be a gamble not worth taking.
International socialist?
Or “National socialist.
There are precedents
At the moment, the “International” socialists definitely have the upper hand.
@bobby b
A relative in Navel Int
I know it was a small typo, god knows I make plenty, but this one made me laugh. Because I think a lot of our intelligence services are of the navel kind, gazing thereat I mean.
Funniest part is, I typed it right the first time, looked at it and said to myself “no, that’s a bellybutton”, and went back and fixed it.
I claim no expertise on this matter but I have visited South Korea a few times and know a few Koreans. This leads me to suggest the entire thing is a confection from a struggling, unprincipled president.
It is highly unlikely that the main opposition party has been subverted by North Korea. This would be like Mexico subverting the Democrats. Except Mexico is nowhere near as much of a basket case as North Korea.
If the president is right that his opponents are stooges of your worst enemies, why did he just roll over 3 hours later just because they did a vote against him? Not really sure what outcome he was hoping for here. Stinks of half hearted desperation, opportunism, mental illness or a combination of these. Even if he’s right about his opponents, the whole sloppy nature of what he’s done makes South Korea look like a laughing stock and I bet the North regime are having a good laugh.
Martin – you make the point I already tried to make. His action has not damaged the left (who are indeed traitors) – his action has destroyed himself.
bobby b – the President of the Republic of Korea does indeed keep talking about North Korea, but he knows that the left (which controls most institutions – not just the Parliament) is really controlled by the People’s Republic of China (not North Korea).
So why does the President not say that? Because he dare not say it – as the PRC is so powerful now, that means (as he dare not even speak bluntly – let alone destroy the left in Korea) he had lost before he lashed out with this farcical “Martial Law” thing.
Notice how Nancy Pelosi and other American leftists have become increasingly friendly with forces in South Korea and Taiwan over the years – this is not because Nancy P. and co have become more right wing, it is because these countries have become more leftist controlled over the years – this is masked by their hard working and intelligent populations, which mean that they do not like the Third World s@it holes that so many American cities have become – even though the are controlled by the same ideology.
As for using feminism, and so on, to push the agenda of the left – this is not a new idea invented by modern “Critical Theory – Intersectional” Marxists, it is an ancient idea.
Aristophanes in “The Assemblywomen” explains the process – almost two and half thousand years ago.
At first there will be the promise of peace and honest government – without the warlike and corrupt policies of male politicians (and Aristophanes was no friend of war or corruption – he had attacked both, repeatedly, in his plays).
But then comes the agenda of having all goods in common, with “fair shares” for all – with the government doling out income to the citizens equally (no private property in the means of production), like a mother looking after her children.
Treating society as if it were a household, with government like a mother giving fair shares to “the children” (the citizens) leads to utter disaster – the breakdown of the nation, the compassion ends up leading to mass starvation.
Of course, this is unfair to many women – who do not fall for these ideas. But “compassionate government” does seem to have more appeal to women than to men – on average. Even though the compassion is based on violence, taking resources by force, and leads, in the end, to mass starvation.
Ironically the People’s Republic of China regime (which pulls the strings of the left in so many Asian countries) knows very well the horrors that “compassionate government” leads to – and abandoned it decades ago (a few years after the death of Mao – the largest scale mass murderer of modern history).
The theories of the left are false – they are factually wrong. But what if people are taught to not value objective and universal truth – even to deny that it exists, and taught (instead) that valuing objective truth (reality) is just disguise for supporting the “power structure”.
If people are taught to value “equity” and “social justice” above objective truth – again even taught that objective truth does not exist and that citing reality is “exploitation and oppression”.
The above leads to the triumph of the left – in any country, and then to horror.
To aircraft that fall out of the sky (because engineering must come under “equity” and “social justice” – not objective and universal truth), bridges that collapse, operations that kill the patients, and farming practices that lead to failed harvests and mass starvation.
The original colony in what is now Massachusetts tried communism (small c) – everything owned in common and equal rations, the experiment ended in starvation – so the American Collectivists were not created by the teaching of Karl Marx, for they were about before he was born. Although American leftists have eagerly embraced the insane delusions of “Woke” (Critical Theory Intersectional) Marxism – “anti racism”, various “waves” of “feminism”, “queer theory”, “Trans Rights” and-so-on.
Again Aristophanes explains the agenda in “The Assemblywomen”
Do not just think they (both female and male leftists) are a few lunatics screaming at the sky, because they lost an election, like savage animals (creatures who, it appears, would eagerly tear human beings apart and eat their flesh) – leftists can be calm, and highly intelligent – and they control almost all institutions in the Western world.
Although they can be calm and highly intelligent, and very hard working (in taking over institutions and so on), they hate truth (reality) to a fanatical degree – so showing them that their ideas are false has no effect, as they hate objective truth (if they accept it exists at all) and love falseness.
The People’s Republic of China Dictatorship quietly de facto took over Nepal today – but it is not a important story to the media as, you see, it was just an “agreement” between two independent governments, nothing to get upset about. Nothing to do with a policy that goes back to the 1950s (the conquest of Tibet) and the 1962 conquest of part of India – or the ever creeping further into India which is going on right now.
As for the demographic death spiral that South Korea, and other Western nations (and South Korea is a Western nation – being a Western nation has got nothing to do with skin colour) are in – well it proceeds.
Even in the United States, which Mark Steyn a couple of decades ago thought might (might) survive, now all but one State (South Dakota) has a fertility rate below replacement level – and the people who are breeding are often dependent on taxpayer financed benefits and public services.
The Harvard sociologist Talcott Parsons called the United States and other Western nations in the 1950s “Functional” societies – and so they were.
People went to work, mostly in productive employment, they got married, they had children and raised them (normally mother at home – normally father at work, for mothers and fathers are different) – 1950s society (which people today are taught to hate and despise) functioned – it was functional.
And it is horribly clear that the “reforms” from the start of the 1960s onwards (the “social revolution”) that the “educated”, including Talcott Parsons himself, supported, have made Western societies radially dysfunctional – indeed have led Western nations into a death spiral.
Yet there appears to be no chance of reversing these “reforms” this “social revolution” – the survival of Western society would be “sexist” (and so on) – it would mean agreeing with “reactionary” thinkers such as Aristotle on certain matters.
The utter extermination of the West is considered, by the “educated”, preferable to being “reactionary”.
And, before anyone points it out, I am well aware that in spite of their bluster, rulers such as Mr Putin are basically Progressives themselves. There is no chance of the rulers of Russia and China actually restoring a traditional society (the sort of society that Plato attacked and Aristotle defended – Plato being “the father of the left”, and Aristotle being the “father of the right” – although look up the First Book of Samuel, Chapter Eight which was composed many centuries before Aristotle) – mass contraception and mass abortion, so women can be in the workplace (in order that men can go and die in his mad wars) is very much Mr Putin’s way of doing things – as his actions contradict the conservative words that come out of his lying mouth.
As for “liberal democratic order” – “liberal” now means just about the opposite of what Prime Minister Gladstone or John Bright meant by the word “liberal”.
And “democratic” means the rule of officials (such as unelected judges) pushing leftist doctrines – in defiance of what the people voted for – for example in the United Kingdom the people have wanted an end to mass immigration since at least the 1960s (indeed they never wanted mass immigration – or the things that have come with it, such as the legislative attacks on Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Association), but the “educated” elite have carried on with the policy – just as they carry on with such policies as sky high energy prices in order to destroy what is left of British industry.
“Our democracy” is the term used in the United States – meaning rule by an unelected Deep State (or Administrative State) – but with the outer trappings of democracy, elections and soon.
Democracy was never cool. What was cool was ‘managed democracy’. Now that the proles believed in actual democracy and are kicking the managers across the world, the managers are letting the mask slip.
A cannibal is simply a socialist in a hurry.
I’ve read that he’s claiming he knew the coup would fail but wanted to ‘send a message’ to his opponents by doing it. The message must be ‘I’m an idiot, please impeach me’. You can’t start a coup and then do half measures. If you’re going to do it, make it mean it.
Martin – yes.
Mr Ed – yes.
agammamon – yes indeed, the people who talk endlessly about “our democracy” or “liberal democracy” HATE democracy – they are “rules based international order” swine, who support rule by unelected officials – including unelected judges.
The last thing such “international order” swine want is for ordinary people to decide policy in independent nations. The only “democracy” they support is token elections on the understanding that whoever wins, largely the same policies are followed.
Still nations are different – for example in the United Kingdom (but not South Korea) Muhammed, under its various spellings, is the most popular boys name – and when a Muslin Association Football player says “I am not wearing this” about a shirt celebrating homosexual acts, the mighty Manchester United Football Club gives in – its “Woke” beliefs collapse.
I noticed this during the Covid lockdowns – gatherings were forbidden, by local Muslims continued to gather in the park as normal – and the police did not dare do anything.
I am supposed to be an “Islamophobe” – but in reality I rather admire some (some) aspects of Islam. It teaches that courage is necessary – and that a man can not be a Muslim if he is not prepared to show courage in support of Islam even, if need be, at the cost of his life.
Against the cowardly “Woke” state, which is used to bullying isolated (“atomised”) individuals (such as alleged “Islamophobes” as well as “racists”, “sexists”, “homophobes”, “transphobes”, “Covid Idiots”, “Climate Deniers” and on and on) who never unite to really fight back, Islam is rather effective.
“You are under arrest – and you will go to prison, for years, for saying something we do not like” – the Islamic answer to that is “I am not coming with you – and many other Muslims are prepared to fight with me” – at this point the “Woke” state, used to bullying isolated individuals, is rather at a loss – and often retreats in cowardly confusion.
So much for the Leviathan of Mr Thomas Hobbes – it is very good at bullying, indeed murdering, isolated individuals, but should a large number of men (and if we are talking about physical violence, killing, it is, mostly, men) stand united against it…. well then the situation changes.
Before anyone points it out – I am aware that there are far more Muslims being born in England than in Scotland or Wales, or Northern Ireland.
sorry, late to this party…
I’m surprised no one here commented on this: “…that seeks to paralyse the judicial and administrative systems…”
That’s one of my main goals re the USG!!! It’s a feature, not a bug.
Now I get that I’ve taken the above a bit out of context, but isn’t that what we’re supposed to do in politics? Latch onto our thing, ignoring all else! Well, paralysis of the judicial and administrative branches is just awesome…now if we can add the legislature to that and make sure the paralysis is complete from the mouth down, we’ll have something useful!
the leftist ideologies put the democracy cart in front of the liberty horse.
Give people liberty and democracy follows, the failure of western nations imbued with leftist credentials to impose democracy on nations without caring that liberty is also important.
We gave democracy to Afghanistan, a few months later a man was condemned to death for leaving his religion.
The same malaise is everywhere, shouts of democracy on one hand whilst whittling down personal liberty, so you can only vote for the people who wish to control you.