Several opposition parties have filed a motion to impeach South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol following his sudden and ultimately brief martial law declaration Tuesday night in South Korea.
Now it’s a waiting game for Korean Americans and Korean businesses with big investments in Georgia, wary of any implications due to the political turmoil.
Yoon announced an emergency martial law declaration Tuesday night in South Korea in response to political gridlock that he blamed on “pro-North Korean anti-state forces” in the opposition Democratic Party. It was the first martial law declaration in over four decades, sparking protests in Seoul as the National Assembly rushed to vote down the decree just hours later.
The ensuing political chaos comes after about three years of political infighting between Yoon’s People Power Party and the opposition Democratic Party, which had previously attempted to impeach Yoon and his cabinet members.
Georgia is home to more than 150,000 people of Korean descent, and the political drama playing out in Seoul is being closely watched in metro Atlanta.
Sunny Park, president of the American Korean Friendship Society, said Yoon’s martial law declaration added “oil to the fire” that the opposition party had been stoking for months.
“He gives the opposition party an even bigger reason to impeach him,” Park said. “They talked about impeachment for months but they didn’t have good enough reason but now they might.”
Two-thirds of the 300-member National Assembly must vote to impeach Yoon for him to be suspended from office, according to South Korea’s constitution. The Democratic Party and other opposition parties control 192 seats but will need some support from Yoon’s party to reach a two-thirds majority.
Lance Lee, a partner with law firm Arnall Golden Gregory in Atlanta, said the unfolding chaos in South Korea is reminiscent of similar scandals several years ago.
Park Geun Hye, the first and only female president of South Korea, was impeached in 2017 as part of a corruption scandal and would later go to prison for her role in a bribery scheme. Yoon, South Korea’s current embattled president, was the prosecutor of that case, which Lee said thrust Yoon’s political career to new heights.
“History is taking place as we speak,” said Lee, who practiced law in Seoul for more than 20 years and grew up between South Korea and the U.S. “The same reasons why (Yoon) became famous and prosecuted President (Park) is essentially the same reason why he may be impeached.”
South Korea has not only impeached, but indicted and convicted, former leaders on corruption charges in the past decade, including Park’s predecessor Lee Myung-bak, who served as president from 2008 to 2013.
Lance Lee said Korea’s business community, a vital foreign investor in the U.S. and Georgia, is especially worried about the ongoing political turmoil. The 2016 impeachment caused the South Korean currency, known as the won, to dip in value and disrupted corporate plans for some of Korea’s largest companies.
South Korea is Georgia’s top foreign investor, with Korean companies announcing more than $10 billion in investments and over 10,000 jobs across Georgia during the 2023 fiscal year.
Hyundai, which is building a $7.6 billion electric vehicle “Metaplant” in Bryan County, said it is “monitoring the developments” but that business is operating as usual with no impacts. LG, which is building a $4.3 billion electric vehicle battery plant at that site in partnership with Hyundai, similarly said it is “closely monitoring the situation and will respond quickly to minimize any potential business impacts.”
Sunny Park, a prominent Korean American businessman in Atlanta, said he is doubtful that the events in Seoul will have any significant impact on Korean businesses and investments abroad.
“There are more and more Korean companies that want to build factories and invest in Georgia,” he said. “I don’t foresee any slowdown on that front.”
Michael Park, Council of Korean American Atlanta regional head, added that the National Assembly’s quick vote to lift the martial law decree and Yoon’s appropriate response to end martial law was a sign to international allies that the nation continues to maintain its democratic institutions.
“People want to make sure the Korean stock exchange, markets, foreign exchange continues to go on just business as usual, because that is the backbone of the economy with Korea being such an export-driven economy,” he said. “They need to show that there is domestic stability.”
In a statement to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Consulate General of South Korea in Atlanta assured that the nation’s security situation was stable, and there was no unusual military activities from North Korea as some Koreans had feared upon hearing of the martial law declaration.
“All the daily businesses have returned to normal,” the consulate said. “Democratic process is intact, and public peace and good order is being preserved.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken called South Korea one of the most powerful stories in the world of democratic resilience, urging the nation to resolve its political disagreements peacefully.
“Korea has been an extraordinary success story over the past three to four decades and the story that it tells of building this strong democracy and one where we see the institutions functioning as they should is one we thought was important to amplify,” he said Wednesday.
The young democracy was embroiled in political chaos and military dictatorships just four decades ago, with older Koreans who remember the last martial law decree in 1979 and Gwangju Uprising in 1980 that is estimated to have killed hundreds of student demonstrators. The imagery of military troops on local streets is traumatic for many Koreans, including Kenny Chae, vice chairman of the Atlanta Korean American Senior Association, who took part in pro-democracy protests in Seoul as a college student.
“Koreans don’t like the idea of people coming out with guns on the streets,” he said. “It’s traumatic for many of us.”
Some conservative Korean Americans, who declined to be quoted by name, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Yoon’s actions were justified due to political gridlock caused by the opposition party.
But Chae blamed Yoon for resorting to martial law before making an honest effort to communicate across the aisle.
“There needs to be communication between parties, but there’s none of that,” he said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comment from the Consulate General of South Korea in Atlanta.
