The Perils of South Korean Democracy

Issue Date April 2025
Volume 36
Issue 2
Page Numbers 38–46
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In a nationally televised address on 3 December 2024, South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol declared nationwide martial law for the first time since 1980. With nationwide protests growing, Yoon was impeached and eventually arrested on insurrection charges, marking South Korea’s first arrest of a sitting president. This crisis, though shocking, reflects longstanding nationalist polarization rooted in unresolved conflicts tracing back to the Korean War. Such polarization distorts democratic competition, incentivizing partisan elites to prioritize state capture over democratic norms. South Korea’s democracy, born amid nationalist conflict, faces persistent dangers as nationalist polarization erodes democratic stability and incentivizes cycles of political revenge.

About the Authors

Joan E. Cho

Joan E. Cho is associate professor of East Asian Studies and (by courtesy) government at Wesleyan University and the author of Seeds of Mobilization: The Authoritarian Roots of South Korea’s Democracy (2024).

View all work by Joan E. Cho

Aram Hur

Aram Hur is assistant professor of political science and the Kim Koo Chair in Korean Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She is the author of Narratives of Civic Duty: How National Stories Shape Democracy in Asia (2022).

View all work by Aram Hur

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