December 18, 2024

Since his Dec. 3 attempt to impose martial law, mass demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of people involving the most important labor unions and popular organizations from around the country came out in the streets of Seoul demanding that South Korean President Yoon Seok-Yeol be deposed.

After a popular rebellion repulsed Yoon’s Dec. 3 coup attempt, the National Assembly reversed the call for martial law, and Yoon was forced to retreat – but refused to step down. Following continuous popular demonstrations, the National Assembly finally voted on Dec. 14 with more than the needed two-thirds majority to impeach Yoon.

The impeachment unleashed massive demonstrations celebrating what the vast majority of South Koreans hope will be Yoon’s expulsion from office and his trial for ordering martial law.

The struggle, however, is far from over. Yoon says he refuses to leave office. Protected by the details of the impeachment law, he can remain in office for up to six months. And powerful forces back him.

Yoon is on the far right of South Korean politics — once calling for a 120-hour work week for South Korean workers. He is a vicious enemy of North Korea and labels all his parliamentary opponents communists and traitors.

In 2022 he won the election with a plurality of less than 1%. Since that election, Yoon has been exposed as corrupt and incompetent to prevent major disasters. Yoon’s support rate has dropped to about one in six, and his party was trounced in the parliamentary elections this year. It holds just a little more than one-third of the seats.

Given his weaknesses, one would think he could easily be removed. But what makes Yoon and his party still dangerous for Koreans is Washington’s role. The U.S. counts on Yoon to carry out an unpopular war program.

While mouthing support for democracy, U.S. imperialism has occupied the Korean peninsula since 1945 and established a demilitarized zone since the end of the Korean War in 1953 with thousands of U.S. troops to keep the peninsula divided. The U.S. has supported military rule there in order to keep that country a vassal in its attempt to maintain hegemony on the world arena.

In 1980, when the people of Gwangju, South Korea, rose up against military rule, the U.S. – then under the Jimmy Carter administration – backed the military dictator Chun Doo-hwan and facilitated the movement of South Korean troops to bury that mass rebellion in blood.

Under both Republican and Democratic administrations, Washington has put in motion plans to build a NATO-like aggressive alliance led by U.S. imperialism. It includes Japanese imperialism and the U.S. junior partner of Australia, with the U.S. “former” colonies, the Philippines and South Korea. The latter two are meant to contribute territory for military bases and human cannon fodder for war against North Korea and China.

Anyone who supports the working class has the duty to support the Korean people’s mobilization against the tyrant Yoon. Anyone who wants to stop an aggressive war in the Pacific has the duty to fight U.S. plans to build a military alliance in the Pacific. The first step is to demand that the U.S. troops get out of Korea!