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South Korea President Imposes Martial Law, Then Lifts It

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Bloomberg Dec 4, 2024 10:43 · 4945 Views

Bloomberg's Michelle Jamrisko discusses South Korean President Yook Suek Yeol imposing martial law and then lifting it hours later. Michelle speaks with Joe Mathieu on Bloomberg's "Balance of Power."

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Transcript

  • 00:00 Is the damage done nonetheless?
  • 00:02 Yeah.
  • 00:02 In a word, I think yes, there is a lot of damage that has been done.
  • 00:05 And it tells you everything you need to know when you see the lifting of the martial law decree happen in the wee hours of the South Korea morning.
  • 00:13 So it says something about what President Yoon was finally getting the message from
  • 00:18 all corners of markets, foreign, domestic allies and critics alike that no one seems to have thought this was a good idea.
  • 00:25 And it it already has done a quite a bit of damage.
  • 00:27 If you saw the markets today, South Korean won slipped
  • 00:31 more than it has at any point since the global financial crisis.
  • 00:34 It's going to take some time to make up that ground.
  • 00:36 Even though he reversed this decision
  • 00:38 domestically, you saw,
  • 00:40 you know, the Confederation of Trade Unions in Korea
  • 00:43 planning a strike because they said one of their top officials said it was a crazy thing that this kind of came out
  • 00:49 domestic
  • 00:50 partners in his own party.
  • 00:51 There was a unanimous vote of 190 of the 300 lawmakers saying
  • 00:55 and demanding this to be overturned.
  • 00:57 So he's going to have to kind of
  • 00:59 repair that damage domestically.
  • 01:01 But at the same time, on the foreign policy front,
  • 01:03 you know, the US, among many allies and partners, is questioning where this came from and what it means
  • 01:09 to
  • 01:09 to damage the image of South Korea as such a bedrock of democracy.
  • 01:13 And it's hauntingly familiar to the debate that we're having in the US right now about executive overreach.
  • 01:18 So it's going to be an interesting way forward to see how President Yoon, if he is able
  • 01:23 to stay in power, how he's able to repair those relationships.
  • 01:26 Use the word cool today.
  • 01:27 How does the US look at this?
  • 01:29 I, I mean, I think the, the US, you saw from the State Department,
  • 01:33 you know, response, it was,
  • 01:35 I think it was probably a little bit of a, a shock
  • 01:38 to to efficient company line.
  • 01:39 What are they saying behind closed doors?
  • 01:40 Well, we, we haven't heard too much yet.
  • 01:42 I think they were digesting, you know, the blow by blow as it came.
  • 01:46 And of course, with President Biden out in Angola right now, it's not an ideal time to get, you know, an official response
  • 01:52 full throated from NSC or, or President Biden himself.
  • 01:55 But
  • 01:56 I think it's not helpful.
  • 01:57 It's
  • 01:58 it's certainly not helpful to the the relationship that the US has tried to foster, including over the past four years with the Biden administration,
  • 02:04 with South Korea as a critical ally in the region, as a counter to China,
  • 02:08 as a partner
  • 02:10 with Japan and and trying to repair that trilateral relationship as well, Japan, South Korea and the US.