In South Korea, a flash political crisis

Back to the future, in South Korea. President Yoon Suk-yeol sparked astonishment in Northeast Asia's young democracy by declaring martial law on December 3, reviving the ghosts of the military dictatorship felled more than four decades ago. And sowing confusion in the immense megalopolis of Seoul, taken by surprise by this unexpected political crisis. Before turning back in the face of parliamentary and public mobilization

The former prosecutor took his 51 million fellow citizens by surprise in the evening during an unexpected televised speech, to release an institutional bombshell, resembling a perilous headlong flight, in the middle of a standoff with the opposition. “Dear fellow citizens, to protect liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korean communist forces and eliminate elements hostile to the state (…), I declare martial law,” announced the leader of Asia's fourth largest economy. A dramaturgy evoking…