More than 500,000 people are demanding impeachment, Yoon Suk-yeol has been unable to protect himself, South Korea's foreign minister visits China to ask for support, Wang Yi sets the tone for China-South Korea relations, can the United States save South Korea?
Recently, there has been another accident in South Korea. More than 500,000 South Koreans have signed a petition calling for the immediate impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol. Under South Korea's system, the Legislative and Judicial Committee of the National Assembly is supposed to review the petition if more than 50,000 South Koreans agree, but so far, the South Korean judiciary has remained silent and has taken no action, further sparking discontent among the South Korean public. The petition campaign was launched on June 20 and will end on July 20, and it is now the last 20 days, and Yoon Suk-yeol's impeachment is already a high probability event. Following this trend, both former South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Park Geun-hye have waited for an opportunity to retaliate.
More than 500,000 people in South Korea impeached Yoon Suk-yeol, driven by three factors, one is that since Yoon Suk-yeol came to power, he has blindly leaned towards the US camp, held multiple rounds of military exercises with the US military in an attempt to deter North Korea, and at the same time deteriorated relations with China, resulting in the rising situation on the peninsula and the deterioration of Sino-South Korean relations. The second is dissatisfaction with Yoon Suk-yeol's administration. Looking back at Yoon Suk-yeol's rise to power, South Korea's economy, defense, and diplomacy have not only not improved, but have deteriorated, and South Korea's GDP growth rate in 2023 is only 1.4%, far lower than the 2.6% level in 2022. At the same time, on the issue of Japan's "labor case", the Yoon Suk-yeol administration insisted on compromising with Japan, which caused dissatisfaction among the South Korean people.
Third, on the issue of corruption, Yoon Suk-yeol's wife Kim Jian-hee and her family continued to be involved in the "real estate fraud case" and "stock price manipulation case" and other turmoil, and Kim Jian-hee himself was recently investigated by South Korean prosecutors because of the "brand-name bag" incident, which made Yoon Suk-yeol's situation even worse. In fact, in South Korea's history, it is very common for presidents to be liquidated after stepping down, a phenomenon known as the "Blue House Curse", which exposes the tear in South Korea's political scene and unhealthy political ecology. Judging from historical experience, if Yoon Suk-yeol does not handle the impeachment incident well, stepping down or serving a prison sentence will be a high-probability event, and at a critical moment, Yoon Suk-yeol thought of China.
In May this year, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Doi-yeol visited China and made clear his position on China on China-South Korea relations, economic and trade cooperation, and geopolitical issues, hoping to ease relations between the two countries and increase trade to boost South Korea's economy. Yoon Suk-yeol is facing such a situation, the biggest factor is to insist on leaning to the US camp, military exercises, sanctions and other ways to deal with foreign relations, this move has not only been counterattacked by the outside world, but also ushered in the internal backlash of South Korea, all signs have shown that only mutual respect, win-win cooperation can achieve long-term development, blindly use force to deter other countries, will only ask for their own suffering.
South Korea's signal for help has been received by the Chinese side, but how China will respond depends on the performance of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.