EVENTS IN SOUTH KOREA: A RETURN TO THE PAST?
So, it looks like South Korea's political trajectory is returning to where it was at the start of the 1960s. US-backed civilian President Syngman Rhee-- who had been running South Korea since 1948--was increasingly becoming more autocratic. He had the opposition candidate Cho Bong-am who ran against him in the 1956 Presidential Election executed in July 1959 under trumped up charges of being a "North Korean spy".
The March 1960 Presidential Election was a sham as President Syngman Rhee was the sole candidate; his opponent Chough Pyung-ok having died of cancer the month before. By April 1960, mass civil unrest across South Korea, led by university students, had caused President Rhee to resign and flee to US state of Hawaii.
The new civilian government that took over South Korea was weak and divided--- offering the highly ambitious General Park Chung Hee the golden opportunity to stage a military coup d'état that ushered in the Dictatorship Era (1961-1988) characterized by periodic outbreaks of mass civil unrest, widespread bloodshed, the murder or imprisonment of political dissidents (especially in the 1970s) and the bloody military coup d'état of 1979 that resulted in the murder of General Park Chung Hee. In the aftermath of that coup, a temporary civilian-led government came to office under the "supervision" of ROK Army General Chun Doo-hwan.
That temporary civilian government promised to conduct general elections. But that was not to be as General Chun Doo-hwan had his own personal ambitions. So another coup d'état followed in May 1980 and South Korea reverted to proper military rule, which lasted until 1988 democratic elections that brought retired ROK General Roh Tae-woo to office.
Fast-forwarding to present day, it is increasingly looking like President Yoon Suk Yeol is planning to be a newly minted replica of Syngman Rhee and even worse. His shuttering of the South Korean Parliament and his false characterization of the political opposition as "pro-North Korea" is merely a return to the rhetoric of Syngman Rhee.
If we take the historical trajectory of South Korea as a guide, then expect mass civil unrest against the Martial Law imposed by President Yoon Suk Yeol....and possibly, a proper military coup d'etat in the style of the 1961 putsch led by General Park Chung Hee.
Picture below: General Park Chung Hee with his men during the military coup d'etat on 16 May 1961
