The News
South Korea was hit by upheaval as authorities sought an arrest warrant for the country’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol while investigators launched a wide-ranging inquiry into a plane crash that killed 179 people.
Law enforcement plans to question Yoon over allegations of abuse of power and insurrection linked to his short-lived imposition of martial law in early December. The South Korean Parliament last week also impeached Prime Minister and then-acting President Han Duck-soo.
SIGNALS
Disaster response may be more difficult amid political crisis
The two events may be ostensibly unrelated, but concerns have already been raised over acting President Choi Sang-mok’s ability to guide a disaster response while he continues to serve as both finance minister and deputy prime minister, The Guardian wrote. The country’s financial markets are reacting to the uncertainty: South Korea shares closed nearly 10% lower in 2024, Markets Insider reported, and trading is likely to be “highly volatile” in January, an analyst said.
Political uncertainty ‘couldn’t come at a worse time’ for the West
South Korea’s political turmoil “couldn’t come at a worse time” for its Western allies as tensions rise with China, North Korea, and Russia, Al Jazeera noted. It could be eight months before a new president is elected, long after US President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, which will make it “challenging to have high-level strategic coordination” or make progress on key issues for the US-Japan-South Korea alliance in 2025, an Indo-Pacific expert wrote for the Atlantic Council. North Korea has been remarkably silent on its neighbor’s domestic crisis, perhaps because the regime currently favors coexistence over unification and is more focused on developing relations with China and Russia, an East Asia expert argued.