South Korean president’s declaration of martial law is "frankly bizarre," geopolitics scholar says

 

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers a speech to declare martial law in Seoul, South Korea, on December 3. 

The Presidential Office/Reuters

The South Korean president’s decision to declare martial law across the country is a “frankly bizarre” political move, John Nilsson-Wright, the head of Cambridge University’s Japan and Koreas Programme, told CNN Tuesday.

“It is, frankly, bizarre that this should be happening and that the president should be minded to do this,” he told CNN’s Becky Anderson from Seoul. “I don’t think it’s going to convince anyone. It seems so patently a political move.”

President Yoon Suk Yeol has recently been responding to efforts from the country’s Democratic Party, which has called for the impeachment of a number of prosecutors, Nilsson-Wright said.

“It’s not unknown for these sorts of back-and-forths to take place, but for him to escalate in this way is really, frankly, bizarre,” Nilsson-Wright continued.

People in Seoul seem “mystified” by what the president’s announcement means, the scholar said.

“We’re not seeing any sign of what you would associate with martial law, in terms of a restriction on people’s ability to move around, deployment of the army or the police, but there’s no doubt that this is truly unprecedented,” he continued.

“I would say at this point, all we can say is that this is an enormous overreaction by the president to say the very least. What he’s trying to do in going after the opposition in these unqualified ways — calling them effectively aligned with North Korea — is, just as I say, unprecedented,” he added.