'Cautionary tale for Washington': Expert says South Korea offers US an ominous lesson

Although the escalating situation unraveling in South Korea may seem like a world away, Washington should be paying close attention.

The failed plot to consolidate power by the country’s “right-wing wannabe authoritarian president” offers a stark forewarning to Americans as President-elect Donald Trump prepares a White House return, according to a political analyst who compared the qualities of both world leaders to startling detail.

And while South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol didn’t get away with his surprise plan to seize power and usher in martial law, even attempts that fall short can have devastating consequences to a democratic society,” Brian Klaas, an associate professor in global politics at University College London, wrote for The Atlantic on Tuesday.

“President Yoon’s seemingly failed bid to consolidate power under martial law is a cautionary tale for Washington on the eve of a second Trump administration,” Klaas said. “Sometimes, incompetent authoritarians botch plots to seize power. They still damage democratic institutions and norms in the process.”

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Klaas continued to build his case by writing that Yoon claimed martial law was needed in his country “to stop the ‘anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people,’" after issuing a statement where he called "the country’s National Assembly a 'den of criminals' and claiming that it was undermining governance."

But protests ensued and it wasn’t long before lawmakers voted unanimously to overturn the martial law declaration.

“One of the core principles of democratic governance is civilian rule, which stipulates that the military provides security but has no role in political governance,” Klaas wrote. “Democracies collapse when that barrier is removed, such as when a coup d’état takes place. But even failed coups or failed attempts to execute martial law can crack the civil-military barrier.”

He added such coup attempts are a reminder that “one person — a power-hungry politician or a self-serving general — could destroy decades of progress in an instant.”