Yoon 'badly misjudged' reversed martial law decree: Campbell

United States Deputy Secretary of State Kurt M. Campbell attends a trilateral meeting with Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun and Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Masataka Okano at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, Korea, Oct. 16. Reuters-Yonhap

President Yoon Suk Yeol "badly misjudged" his short-lived imposition of emergency martial law this week, a senior U.S. diplomat said Wednesday, highlighting that Korea's past experience of similar events has a "deep" and "negative" resonance in the Asian country.

Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell made the remarks during a forum, after Yoon abruptly declared martial law Tuesday night and reversed the decree hours later following the National Assembly's passage of a resolution to overturn it.

He pointed out that the reversed law imposition is viewed as "deeply problematic" and "deeply illegitimate," while describing political parties' opposition to the decree as "deeply reassuring" about where Korea's democracy stands.

"What transpired over the last 24 hours in Korea ... was completely, deeply unpredictable and unlikely, and I think President Yoon badly misjudged," Campbell said during the Aspen Security Forum.

"I think the memory of previous experiences of martial law has a deep and negative resonance in Korea," he added.

He predicted that Korea will be in a "challenging" place in the aftermath of the martial law episode but reaffirmed the United States' commitment to maintaining the robust bilateral alliance.

"Our goal is to make clear that our alliance is absolutely rock solid," he said.

"We stand with them, but ultimately to have the confidence that they will be able to work through these issues, through their own means and their own mechanisms. And we have confidence in that."

Campbell obliquely criticized the martial law imposition while signaling a sense of relief over its retraction.

"You point out politics in the ROK are deeply polarized and divided. The fact that both (Korean) parties can agree that this step was deeply problematic, I think, in many ways, is deeply reassuring about the strength and depth of democracy in the ROK," he said, referring to Korea by its official name, the Republic of Korea.

"We watched this over the last couple of days. We've had many interactions with our ROK interlocutors, and they take some pride in the resilience of their democracy, the fact that they've managed to stand clearly and firmly against these actions."

He also took stock of Korean people's reaction in the wake of the martial law declaration.

"The nature of the robustness of the democracy in many of the countries in Asia, Korea, first and foremost, is something that we should very much reflect on," he said.

"This is a powerful symbol, and the fact that people were prepared to come out and make clear that this was a deeply illegitimate process and that would be met by the will of the people and frankly, the will of the legislative bodies. I think we have to take some comfort and confidence in that."

This week's development in Seoul appeared to have taken U.S. officials aback as it happened when President Joe Biden has championed democracy and touted progress with the deepening of the alliance with Seoul and trilateral cooperation with Tokyo as a key foreign policy feat during his term that ends next month. (Yonhap)