South Korea reels from martial law spasm

The question for Asia yesterday was whether South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol would survive the day in office after a desperate overnight experiment with martial law. He did, but he may not last the week. MPs could vote as early tomorrow to impeach him. Opposition parties need only eight votes from Yoon’s party for the two-thirds majority needed to hand the case to the country’s constitutional court. Japan is meanwhile contemplating a severely destabilised Pacific alliance with South Korea in turmoil and the US waiting for the return of Trump. Between them they hope to contain Chinese empire-building in the South China Sea and North Korean militarism in concert with Russia. The autocrats have had a good 48 hours just watching. The verdict on Yoon from a political scientist who knows him is that he’s become mentally unstable from the pressures of office. The verdict of one of South Korea’s biggest daily newspapers is that he’s an international “embarrassment”.