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).

April 2025, Volume 36, Issue 2

The Perils of South Korean Democracy

When South Korea’s president declared martial law last December, he shocked the country and sparked a political crisis that laid bare deep-seated divisions. Can Korean democracy overcome the nationalist polarization that has always defined it?