In early December South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol announced a military coup. Given the Republic of Korea’s brutal history of military dictatorships, thousands of Koreans and opposition parties committed to upholding democracy immediately mobilized and reversed the declaration of martial law in a matter of hours. Yoon has since been impeached and arrested, but whether he will be forced from office remains an open question. Also uncertain are South Korea’s political future, the political turmoil’s impacts on the country’s alliance with the U.S. and Japan, and for the region as a whole, including China.
Francis Daehoon Lee of PEACEMOMO in Seoul has been research professor for peace studies at SungKongHoe University. He served as legal advisor to the Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Sub-commission. He was the former executive director of ARENA (Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives, Asia-wide) and worked with several other NGOs in Korea and Asia
Tim Shorrock is a journalist and writer based in Washington, DC. He grew up in Japan and South Korea during the Cold War and has been writing about the US military role in Asia since the late 1970s. In 2015 he was given an honorary citizenship by the city of Gwangju for his reporting on the secret background roleplayed by the US government and military in the events surrounding the 1980 Gwangju Uprising in South Korea and the imposition of martial law. He was a correspondent for The Nation magazine and the author of SPIES FOR HIRE: The Secret World of Intelligence
Co-sponsored by the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Security, Massachusetts Peace Action and the New England Korea Peace Campaign
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