South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Tuesday, the first declaration of martial law in the country since a 1980 coup installed a military dictatorship. Only six hours later, the South Korean National Assembly overruled the declaration, and progressive members of the legislative body have submitted a motion to impeach Yoon, which will likely be voted on by this weekend.

“When you look at what is included in the declaration of martial law,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, it would mean “basically all news and media publications are now under the control of the government. No political gatherings, no opposition, even an ability to crack down on fake news. … This is stuff we would expect from totalitarian governments. But when this starts to come into democracies, I think it’s something we should take note of.”

Shortly after Yoon’s late-night announcement, soldiers and police surrounded the South Korean National Assembly, blocking protestors and lawmakers alike. However, within three hours, 190 out of 300 lawmakers managed to assemble, with some even entering through a window. The legislative chamber — including members of Yoon’s own party — voted 190 to zero to overturn his emergency order. Yoon formally rescinded his martial law declaration during a cabinet meeting at 4:30 a.m., after which time the armed guards dispersed.

The stated reason for Yoon’s declaration was alarm over alleged “anti-state” activities by the Democratic Party of Korea, the left-wing opposition party that controls the National Assembly by a large margin. “It’s clear, and everyone knows it,” Asia expert Gordon Chang allowed on “Washington Watch” Wednesday. “The Democratic Party of Korea is heavily infiltrated by North Koreans. Moon Jae-in, the last leftist president, governed as if he were a North Korean asset.”

“But that doesn’t mean that Yoon should have done what he did,” Chang added, even from an amoral, political perspective. Declaring martial law “was going to be, always, extremely unpopular. There had been talk about martial law in the months leading up to this, but nobody thought that it would actually occur because it was just inconceivable. Yoon made it conceivable, and he’s going to pay the price for it.”

In other words, Yoon’s decision was the political equivalent of hanging oneself in a garage with a running car while wearing a suicide vest. There is no coming back from this decision in the eyes of the South Korean voters.

Yoon was never a particularly popular president to begin with. “Just a couple of years ago, when he got elected in 2022, he just won by a small margin, 1%, over the opposition party,” observed Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas) on “Washington Watch” Tuesday. “Still, the other party controls about 192 of the 300 seats in the parliament there, and just about eight seats short of what they need to impeach President Yoon.”

Yoon became more “unpopular for his domestic affairs. … It was just one disaster after another,” Chang explained. One media scandal involved “his wife getting photographed accepting a very expensive, couture handbag.”

But the issue that likely sunk Yoon’s popularity more than any other was that “he started coordinating with Japan at the insistence of the United States,” Chang pointed out. The Koreans and Japanese have historically been enemies, and it seems that Korea still smarts from the brutal occupation of the Japanese empire in the early 20th century. Thus, cooperating with Japan “was a ‘profile in courage’ moment” for Yoon, Chang suggested. “Previous South Korean presidents had refused to do that because they realized how unpopular it was. But Yoon put himself on the line, and that helped to build a coalition to contain a very aggressive North Korea and a very aggressive China.”

What a stunning reversal, then, for this statesman with an apparent long-term, strategic vision for his country’s future to scuttle his own career in less than a week! Yoon not only “decided that he was going to do something which was unimaginable, which is to declare martial law,” said Chang, but “he did it incompetently. He rescinded it, as you pointed out, after six hours.”

As a result, Chang predicted, Yoon “is going to have to resign. If he’s not going to resign, he’s probably going to be impeached on Friday or Saturday. And that will cause a crisis in South Korea.”

“What President Yoon did is certainly concerning, because martial law should be the very last thing that is resorted to,” Moran insisted. “When the government begins to decide what is correct information and misinformation, that is a slippery slope that we do not want to go down here in America, and we don’t want to see our democratic partners around the world give in to that.”

“It’s an easy and susceptible pathway to go down, too,” added Moran, “because governments want to — tend to —believe that they have the truth. But as we’ve already seen here … about the COVID information that we got … government oftentimes is wrong.”

“Government should not be the purveyor of what is truth and what is not truth,” he reiterated. “We need to let free press and free expression of speech happen. … They’re essential and foundational to preserving the democratic institutions that we have here. And we need to make sure to reinforce that with our partners around the world. … Otherwise, the democratic processes there cannot be trusted.”

“We certainly would not want to see that happen here in the United States, regardless of what party might be in power,” agreed Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. “What allows us to do course corrections is when the American people have the full ability to express themselves, and peacefully assemble, and seek the redress of grievances that they have. We can do it at the ballot box, but there [are] other times to do it as well. And it’s important that we protect those rights.”

“As the facts roll in, boy, you wonder, what was the foundational basis for this? I know he’s had a lot of opposition from [Democratic party] Leader Lee [Hak-young]’s party and a lot of internal leadership struggles as well,” Moran mused. But “when you’re talking about the rights of the people to associate with one another to push back against the government,” that undermines the bedrock of free societies, the very principles that distinguish them from dictatorships.

The South Korean crisis comes at a critical time internationally. Broadly speaking, South Korea plays an important role in the U.S.-led coalition of Pacific states that seek to constrain Chinese expansion. “This is very concerning because we’re talking about a strategic ally and a very important region of the world for us,” Moran pointed out. South Korea is not just an ally of convenience, he added, “but an ally that has got a democratic basis to it,” meaning the two nations also share similar governing philosophies — so long as they maintain those democratic institutions.

More immediately, over the past two months, North Korean soldiers have trickled across Russia to join in Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine. South Korea has maintained an uneasy stand-off with its northern counterpart since the 1950s, and the sudden shift in North Korean military policy spooked them into considering whether they, too, should join the war.

Another layer complicating the situation is the transition from the Biden administration to the Trump administration, particularly if Yoon is forced out of office and replaced by a member of the left-leaning coalition that controls the National Assembly. When Trump takes office, he will inherit a relationship with South Korea that “doesn’t look good,” Chang predicted. “The conservative forces [in South Korea] have always been very pro-America, the progressive or the leftist camp has been very anti-America.”

“For instance, Yoon’s immediate predecessor, Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea, a leftist, was essentially governing like a North Korean,” Chang declared. “He did all [that] is possible to undermine the alliance with the United States. So, for instance, when President Trump visited Seoul during his first term, Moon did all he could to disrespect not only President Trump, but the United States of America.”

A colder relationship between the U.S. and South Korea “will embolden the North Koreans and the Chinese,” said Chang. “The North Koreans may think they can use their leverage in South Korean society through the unions, to try to change the form of governance in South Korea.”

It’s a good thing that a U.S. ally with democratic institutions so vigorously resisted an attempt to impose martial law (although it’s serious that it even became a question). However, the short-term political consequences may inflict pain upon America while emboldening our adversaries. How swiftly international relations can change in a few short days!