South Korea has been in turmoil after President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on December 3, 2024, putting the country under military rule and creating the country’s biggest constitutional crisis since the country was democratized in 1987. Mr. Yoon said he declared ​martial law out of, in his words, “desperation​” as his opposition used its political majority to “paralyze” his government.

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Although President Yoon’s martial law decree lasted only six hours, he was impeached by Parliament ten days later on charges of perpetrating an insurrection by declaring martial law and for sending troops into the National Assembly. After a weeks-long standoff that ended in a dramatic raid on the official presidential residence, Yoon Suk Yeol was detained.

On April 4, 2025, South Korea’s highest court unanimously upheld the impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol, clearing the way for the election of a new president.

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South Korea is another clear example of Donald Trump’ irresponsible and disrespectful behavior toward our allies. Take his first trade war, for example. Early in his administration, Donald Trump’s tariffs affected over 50 percent of Chinese imports, but that was not the worst of it. At the same time, tariffs affected 9.6 percent of imports from South Korea, 7.3 percent from Canada, 3.8 percent from Japan, and 2.5 percent from the European Union – ALL OF THEM OUR ALLIES! That is just not cool.

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We imagine South Korea is completely baffled by Donald Trump. To our close friend – who has a lot to lose in the face of an empowered North Korea – Donald Trump’s bromance with Kim Jong- un, along with his constant griping about overseas American deployments, must be downright chilling. Worse, often he conflates economic issues with military protections, seemingly threatening one against the other. For example, in November 2019, the first Trump administration demanded that South Korea increase what they pay for the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed there, from $923 million/year to $5 billion/year. 

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We cannot overstate how short-sighted and irresponsible these actions were. As China’s military ambitions increase and North Korea essentially shoots us the bird, we need our allies now more than ever. The only thing these aggressive actions achieve is to push South Korea straight into the arms of China – a move that would not serve America well in the long-term, to say the least.

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Beyond that, we need true American leadership to ensure that our allies get along among themselves. Historical grievances between South Korea and Japan have reached critical mass, with grave global economic and security consequences. What started as a question about what, if anything, Japan owes South Korea for Japan’s colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula until Japan’s surrender in World War II has expanded to disputes over territory and geopolitical squabbles.

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To maintain rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific, it is critical that the United States help bridge the gap between our two allies and encourage trilateral cooperation between the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK). Although it seems South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is open to improving relations – establishing a foundation in 2023 to compensate former forced laborers from Japan – Japan remains distrustful, to say the least.

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That said, leave it to Donald Trump’s anti-ally behavior to bring even these two together. Just days after signing a proclamation to impose a 25 percent tariff on auto imports, top trade officials from South Korea, Japan and China – all three of which Donald accused of being trade abusers – set a meeting to discuss economic cooperation.