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Challenges Facing the South Korean Electoral System -

2024

Col Grant Newsham, USMC (ret.), President of KCPAC
Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC
Senior Research Fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies

Introduction: What’s at Stake

On December 4th, 2024, Republic of Korea (ROK) President Yoon Suk-yeol declared
martial law. It seemed to come out of nowhere and took many by surprise – apart
from those who have been following what’s happening to the Korean electoral
system.

As a result of years of unusual election results and a lack of transparency about the
mechanics of the electoral system itself, there has been persistent degradation of
trust in free and fair elections in the country. Those trying to investigate are targeted.
The judiciary won’t preside over cases. Governance has become difficult. The result is
a country on the edge, with malign actors - including North Korea and the People’s
Republic of China (PRC) - gaining influence. What’s going on in Korea can happen in
any democratic country where elections are not secure.
An electoral system in a free country needs to be carefully watched and tended.
Failure to do so will eventually shake the underpinnings of even the strongest nations
– even those with seemingly solid democratic institutions, processes and traditions.
Once public trust in the democratic process for transferring power and selecting and
changing a government – i.e. the electoral process – erodes, so does the cohesion of
the nation itself. This disintegration is even worse when a political group subverts the
electoral process in order to gain political power for itself.
This dynamic has played out over the last seven years in the Republic of Korea.

Background

President Yoon Suk-yeol warned of North Korean supporters in the opposition in his
statement announcing and justifying martial law on December 4 , 2024.
th
He is right. There is a sizable chunk of South Korea's Democratic Party (DP) and
leftist political world that is openly pro-North Korea - and also pro-China. They are
also anti-American.

South Korean leftists have long wanted a one-party state that they control. They have
sought to dominate the levers of power beyond the government – to include labor
unions, academia, media, the judiciary, among others.

But the main target has been the government, and in particular the National
Assembly. Unlike in the United States, where a president has considerable power

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