MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Tomorrow, South Korea's parliament will vote on whether to impeach the South Korean president. President Yoon Suk Yeol tried but failed to impose martial law this week and put the nation's democratic institutions to a serious test. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul.
ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: Several bombshell revelations came out today about how Yoon tried to impose martial law. One was that Yoon's then-defense minister ordered soldiers to remove lawmakers from parliament. He sent army Special Warfare Commander Lt. Gen. Kwak Jong-keun to do the job. Kwak explained to a lawmaker what happened.
KWAK JONG-KEUN: (Through interpreter) It was clearly illegal to drag lawmakers out. And the people carrying out that mission would naturally be held legally responsible later. I knew it would be considered insubordination because I was given this order, but I did not relay it.
KUHN: Fears rippled through Seoul Friday that President Yoon might try to impose martial law a second time. But Lt. Gen. Kwak said he would defy those orders, too. Kwak was later suspended from his duties. Opposition leaders described President Yoon's move as a self-coup or an insurrection in order to sweep aside his opponents. Officially and publicly at least, the U.S. government has not harshly criticized Yoon. That's not surprising, says Daniel Sneider, a Stanford University expert on U.S. policy towards Asia.
DANIEL SNEIDER: Yoon in many ways was the sort of best partner the United States could have in South Korea. And so I can understand why people in the administration were pretty shocked and not too happy to see him go down in flames.
KUHN: If Yoon is impeached, Sneider says, he's likely to be replaced by a more liberal administration, which is more skeptical about the U.S. and Japan and more willing to deal with North Korea, Russia and China.
Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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