Moscow ponders Western response to political crackdown in South Korea
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova is contemplating the likelihood of Western countries hitting South Korea with sanctions in response to reports of a crackdown on political protests in the country.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared emergency martial law, accusing the country’s main opposition party of sympathizing with North Korea and of anti-state activities. He cited a motion by the opposition Democratic Party to impeach top prosecutors and reject a government budget proposal, describing it as “clear anti-state behavior aimed at inciting rebellion.” These acts have “paralyzed state affairs and turned the National Assembly into a den of criminals,” Yoon claimed.
Soon afterward, South Korean lawmakers voted to block the martial law decree, with National Assembly chairman Woo Won-sik calling on the president to “immediately lift” the emergency measures.
According to AP, hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the Assembly, waving banners and calling for Yoon’s impeachment. Later on Tuesday, Yoon announced he will end marshal law mere hours after introducing it.
Reacting to the events, Zakharova wondered whether Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have made any decision regarding the matter.
On December 1, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis announced that the three Baltic states had jointly agreed to impose sanctions against those he said had “suppressed legitimate protests in Georgia.”
“Will sanctions be imposed on Seoul? Or will South Korea be luckier than Georgia?” Zakharova wrote on Telegram on Tuesday.
Protests have been raging in Tbilisi since Thursday, when Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that he would freeze EU accession talks until 2028 due to Brussels’ “constant blackmail and manipulation” of Georgian internal affairs.
He further accused the West of trying to orchestrate a coup similar to the US-backed Maidan revolution that toppled Ukraine’s government in 2014.
Kobakhidze’s Georgian Dream party, which won nearly 54% of the vote in parliamentary elections in October, favors stable relations with both the EU and Russia. Pro-Western opposition parties and Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who was born in France, have refused to recognize the results of the vote. Zourabichvili’s mandate ends this month, but she has refused to leave office until the elections are re-run.
The US has responded to Kobakhidze’s freezing of accession talks by canceling Washington’s strategic partnership with Tbilisi, while EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has warned that Brussels is considering sanctions against Georgia.
The US State Department said on Tuesday it was watching the situation in South Korea unfold with “grave concern.”
Principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel expressed hope it would be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law. Patel was quoted by Sky News as calling Seoul a “vital partner” and confirming the alliance between the two countries remains “ironclad.”
