On Dec 3, President Yoon Seok Yeol of South Korea declared martial law for the 13th time in the country’s history. South Korea has not been under martial law since 1987, when the June Democratic Movement ousted former US-backed military dictator Chun Doo-Hwan.
Thanks to the masses of South Korean people, legislators were able to break past soldiers guarding the National Assembly and voted to nullify the martial law measure. Not satisfied until martial law officially ended, thousands of people remained outside the National Assembly all night to safeguard the building. The next morning, Yoon lifted the martial law order.
South Korea’s working masses have made a truly admirable display of heroism, successfully defeating Yoon’s bid for a return to military rule. However, the struggle has not ended. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the largest progressive union in South Korea representing over one million workers, has called an indefinite general strike until Yoon resigns.
In solidarity with the KCTU and other progressive organizations, we, the undersigned organizations, call on President Yoon to step down. Additionally, we condemn the role of the US in propping up the anti-democratic Yoon administration, which never enjoyed a popular mandate.
President Yoon’s coup attempt came after years of political crisis during his administration. As one of the most despised leaders in South Korea’s short history, Yoon has faced 22 impeachment attempts from the opposition-controlled legislature. Throughout November, hundreds of thousands of people protested across South Korea to demand Yoon’s resignation, and millions more participated in a civilian referendum to remove him from power.
What is the reason for Yoon’s widespread unpopularity? One of the primary causes is the open corruption of his regimes. From accusations of election fraud to repeated scandals surrounding the alleged financial crimes of his family members, President Yoon has made himself into an emblem of South Korea’s deep economic inequality. However, the causes of growing inequality and economic crisis in South Korea are not due to Yoon alone.
As President, Yoon integrated South Korea into Washington’s New Cold War, escalating aggression against North Korea and forging new alliances with Japan, Korea’s original colonizer–at Washington’s behest. Thanks to the Yoon regime, the Japanese military returned to Korean territory for the first time since 1945, making Yoon a welcomed guest at President Biden’s White House and pushing the Korean Peninsula to the brink of a renewed war.
Yoon’s participation in the New Cold War has also caused economic devastation at the expense of the Korean people. As the Biden administration pushed to sever supply chain ties with China and bring manufacturing back to the US, South Korea has become swept into this trade war. Rather than pursuing an independent economic agenda and standing up to US coercion, Yoon sided with the US, forcing South Korean companies to limit commerce with China. The resulting economic struggles were primarily borne by the Korean people, who have been hit with layoffs, worsening working conditions, and austerity. Moreover, Yoon also declared war on South Korea’s trade unions, investigating and prosecuting thousands of labor organizers for a range of spurious crimes, from racketeering to “anti-state activities” under the draconian National Security Law.
Despite years of anti-Yoon protests and vocal concerns from South Korean society about the character of his rule, the US uncritically embraced Yoon as a key ally. This reflects the larger history of the US-South Korea relationship, which has long been characterized by Washington’s unwavering support for brutal military regimes in South Korea. Yoon’s bid for martial law was an attempt to return to this bloody history.
Yoon nodded to this history in his initial declaration of martial law, when he claimed a need to “eliminate” “pro-North Korea forces.” This rhetoric echoes that of past military dictatorships in South Korea, who have used the unfinished Korean War as a justification to commit heinous crimes against humanity.
Since its founding in 1948, South Korean regimes have repeatedly used martial law to massacre hundreds of thousands of people, beginning with the Jeju Massacre of the 1940s, and most recently with the 1980 Gwangju Massacre. In all instances, popular movements for sovereignty, liberation, and dignity were branded as enemy agents using anti-communist and anti-North Korea rhetoric.
Throughout this bloody history, the US has always stood by and enabled South Korea’s crimes against its people. US soldiers supported and oversaw a series of brutal massacres in South Korea in the late 1940s and early 1950s, helping the South Korean government repress popular uprisings in Jeju, Daegu, Yeosu, and Suncheon. In the early days of the Korean War, South Korean soldiers and police massacred between 100,000 – 200,000 political dissidents, often in plain view of US and allied soldiers and officers. In 1980 Gwangju Massacre, President Jimmy Carter himself gave South Korean military dictator Chun Doo-Hwan permission to redeploy South Korean paratroopers from the DMZ to slaughter the heroic people of Gwangju.
Over 70 years since the signing of the Korean War armistice, the US retains 62 military bases and 28,500 troops in South Korea. This means the US could easily reprise its role in overseeing South Korean atrocities. The US must be prevented from supporting further crimes and repression of the Korean people. The only way to ensure this is to achieve the full and permanent withdrawal of US troops and weapons systems from the Korean peninsula.
In recognition of the reality of US imperialism, its history in Korea, and the dangers of the political situation in Yoon’s South Korea, Nodutdol launched its US Out of Korea Campaign earlier this year. As organizations of the left look to understand the situation in Korea and build solidarity with the Korean people, it is imperative to adopt an anti-imperialist stance in line with Korea’s history and material conditions. We reiterate the demands of the US Out of Korea campaign as follows:
- US Out of Korea: the full and permanent withdrawal of US troops and weapons systems from Korea; and the return of all Korean land, water, and airspace appropriated for the US military to the Korean people.
- End the US-South Korea alliance: an end to all US-South Korea alliances, including the JAKUS trilateral security cooperation; as well as all US-South Korea joint command structures—the Combined Forces Command, and the UN Command.
- End all aggression against North Korea: an end to all US military exercises in Korea; and the lifting of all sanctions against North Korea
- End the war economy: divert US government spending from war, prisons, and policing; and into housing, education, healthcare, and climate justice for working people.
In Solidarity,
Nodutdol
미주희망연대
All-African People’s Revolutionary Party
American Party of Labor
ANSWER Coalition
Anti-Displacement NYC
Anti-War Committee Chicago
Action One Korea
Arab Resource & Organizing Center
BAYAN USA
Bay Area Branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation
Bronx Anti War Coalition
Cal-Nev Philippine Solidarity Task Force
CODEPINK
Community Liberation Programs
CUNY for Palestine
December 12th Movement
Defend Democracy in Brazil Committee
Diaspora Pa’lante Collective
Desis Rising Up and Moving
Equality for Flatbush
Freedom Road Socialist Organization
Gabriela Excelsior
Gabriela Oakland
Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice
Hanpan
International League of Peoples’ Struggle – US Chapter
J-Town Action and Solidarity
Jews Against White Supremacy
Keep Beyond
Korea Policy Institute
Korean Americans for the Progressive Party
Koreans4Decolonization
Korea Peace Now Grassroots Network
Labor-Community Alliance of South Florida
League of Filipino Students at San Francisco State University
Liyang Network
Malaya New York
Mamas 4 A Free Palestine
Midnight Books
Nikkei Resisters
No Tech for Apartheid
NY Action Committee for Sovereign Peaceful Reunification of Korea
PAL-Awda Long Island
PAL-Awda NY/NJ
Palestinian Feminist Collective
Palestinian Youth Movement
Qiao Collective
Resist US-Led War Seattle
Resistance Coalition LA
SALAM
San Jose Against War
Socialist Unity Party
Sông2Sea
Tech Workers Coalition
The Committee for Sovereignty Peaceful Reunification of Korea in LA
The People’s Forum
Truth-Reconciliation-Peace USA
United National Antiwar. Coalition (UNAC)
Veterans For Peace, East Bay Chapter 162, Berkeley/Oakland
Washington Against Nuclear Weapons Coalition
Washington Butterfly for Peace