My Korean parents have a good relationship with me. They accepted my same-sex marriage – an unusually progressive attitude in our country – and traveled with my husband and I. We can discuss anything publicly.
Except for North Korean politics.
They firmly believe that former South Korean conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol did the right thing in December when he tried to impose martial law and arrest opposition politicians while in office. His move has put the country in crisis, another chapter in the fierce and often meaningless political confrontation that has swept the country in recent years.
When I called my parents the day after Mr. Yoon's failed attempt, even in my otherwise harmonious family, the irreconcilable national divide was evident: I condemned the blatant undemocratic robbery of power, which restored memories of past military rule. My father praised it as necessary to curb the opposition, which he believes is pro-North Korea.
Mr. Yoon's semi-familiar plot disappears within a few hours. He quickly impeached each and suspended his post. A U.S. Constitutional Court ruling Friday sent him permanently.
Mr. Yoon's bizarre plan failed to be known as a victory for democracy in South Korea and abroad. There is nothing to celebrate here. South Korea is as divided as ever, and the entire incident should give a clear warning to democracies everywhere what happens when political polarization is out of control.
South Korean politics has long been plagued by deep rifts, which stems mainly from the Korean Peninsula that has been between the north and the south for decades. This divided the Koreans into two opposing political camps – an anti-communist led by an authoritarian elite, favoring a tough line against North Korea, and a left-wing, pro-democracy camp that advocated efforts to reconcile with Pyongyang.
After decades of military dictatorship, South Korea finally achieved full democracy in 1987 and the country flourished. However, the basic basic fault line has expanded to the point where the two parties that now dominate politics – Mr. Won's right-wing People's Power Party and the left-wing central opposition Democrats against South Korea – view each other as enemies and fall into a battle of death. It was a battle, full of character assassination, indictment, and now a shocking new precedent for Mr. Yoon to resort to martial law. The task of dominating the country has been regressed.
Mr Yoon is just the latest in a long-time president who has landed in this “Game of Thrones” environment. In decades of national growth, election manipulation and coups (and an assassination) were the standard means of rising and falling for presidents. After democratic rule, this strategy was mitigated, but it was basically the same game, a constant cycle of political vendetta that was more characteristic than a developed democracy.
Mr Yoon is the third president (the first overthrown) to be impeached since 2004, and his four previous presidents face criminal investigations, usually led by the other party. Two of them went to prison, the other one, Roh Moo-hyun, who jumped to his 2009 in 2009 after prosecutors closed down.
It is ridiculous that many outsiders may have difficulty telling the two sides to separate. Both major parties cited nationalism calls for a strong Korean defense, both linked to a strong family-controlled business empire called Chaebol, both fearing that the U.S. birth rate has declined and neither has advanced enough to uphold the rights of sexual minorities like me.
It is realised here that we no longer live in a truly democratic country. After the martial arts devastating defeat, the famous North Korean democratic scholar Choi Jang-jip called South Korea a “democracy without politics” and its party was in a state of “quasi-intelligence war”. Global democracy in the economic intelligence sector lowered South Korea from “full democracy” in February, thus reducing “full democracy”. Mr Yoon's ridiculous excuse for what he did illustrates how democracy loses its meaning here: He said he tried to break the Democratic Party's “legislative dictatorship”, which at any time thwarted his agenda – in short – destroyed democracy to save it.
Foreseeable, the survey shows that Koreans have low confidence in the political system and the impartiality of the news media, which will drive people to online resources like YouTube, where they pay tribute to fake news in the echo room.
Instead of shocking the dead end road, Yoon Saga further divided the Koreans. Within weeks of the Constitutional Court's deliberations, the U.S. opposition to hostility has been protesting on the streets almost every day, both demonizing each other. Besides the generations I saw in my family, Koreans are separated along the gender line: the demonstrations against Mr. Yoon are famous for many young women, and young men seem to attract the prince’s gatherings countless times. As a leading newspaper title in March, “Family, Lovers and Friends Split.”
New elections must be held within 60 days of the Constitutional Court's decision. But changing the head of the head is unlikely to let the failed political institutions put their boring quarrels aside and address urgent national concerns such as the housing affordability crisis, or how to drive President Trump only makes the world worse.
Polls show that the absolute majority of Koreans want to change the government. This is likely to benefit the Democrats, whose leader Lee Jae-Myung has been the driving force that frustrated Mr Yoon in parliament. As a result, Mr. Lee was condemned by the conservative camp. Last year, he was almost killed by a knife-wielding man, who was radicalized by the state’s politics and was prosecuted by Mr. Yoon’s Justice Department.
The corruption of Korean politics is too deep to be cured by a court ruling or election. If the country's politicians and voters cannot learn to reflect, talk and compromise, then the “Game of Thrones” will be grand and democracy will disappear.
Se-woong Koo is a Korean-born writer and journalist. He founded Korea Exposé, an online magazine focused on Korean news and taught Korean studies at Yale University from 2013 to 2014.
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