Yoon’s Trumpian energy undermines Korea

Yoon claims he acted out of deep concern about the integrity of Korea’s voting system. Part of the urgency, he claims, stemmed from the National Intelligence Service’s cybersecurity checkup conducted last year.

The report, Yoon asserts, uncovered signs that the National Election Commission’s (NEC) platforms are vulnerable to cyberattacks and hacking attempts. This, he says, means the NEC’s “capability of managing elections is questionable.”

Fair enough. Name a democracy anywhere that doesn’t live in constant fear of election meddling, be it domestic or foreign. But what’s really questionable is the reckless manner in which Yoon and his supporters are going about it.

The martial law stunt was so wildly over the top that it has credit rating companies scrutinizing Korea. Troops being dispatched to election facilities is the stuff of Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey, not a proud paragon of democratic principles.

You don’t restore trust in elections with a bizarre power grab that taints the credibility of an entire governmental system. And if you have proof — real evidence — that vote tabulations are suspect, show it. Trafficking in conspiracy theories and vague chatter about “anti-state” forces sympathetic to foreign governments, and North Korea perhaps, helps no one.

Least of all Yoon, who’s looking more like a hapless villain in a Robert Ludlum spy novel than a truth-teller. Yoon is also looking more Trumpian than many Koreans might want to admit.

Full disclosure: I write these words with a tinge of sheepishness, given the anti-democratic upheaval shocking my native U.S. The same goes for the last 20-plus years I’ve spent living in Asia, writing about illiberal turns by governments around the region.

I’ve covered Indonesia’s evolution from military-led basket case to thriving investment destination and innovative upstart. I’ve chronicled Thailand’s coups, Malaysia’s struggles to dismantle a kleptomaniac system stymying competitiveness and India’s ricocheting back and forth from socialism and capitalism. And the Philippines’ ordeal with family dynasties squandering its future.

It never occurred to me that the U.S. could find itself faced with all these threats at once — and others for which we Americans lack the imagination — even before Trump’s second term begins on Jan. 20.

Even though the effort failed, Trump stuck to his “stolen election” talking points, setting the stage for the violence to come in 2021. Believing Trump’s election fantasies, millions of Americans were ready to believe Joe Biden had rigged the November 2020 election. That primed thousands to attack the Capitol building in Washington two months later.

Trump’s superpower is creating his own reality apart from facts. For four years, Trump failed to offer evidence that paper ballots had been manipulated in 2020. Or that voting machines had been tampered with in ways that might have altered the national vote. Or that the “deep state” at home or state actors abroad conspired to defeat him.

Nor did Trump need it. The absence of proof was overwhelmed by Trump’s megaphone, amplified by right-wing media platforms, social media algorithms and sycophantic Republican lawmakers placing tribalism over the good of the nation.

Unfortunately, Trump’s gambit went global. In January 2023, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro tried to repeat Trump’s rigged election playbook — only to face federal and state charges.

The other way it’s gone international is by trashing America’s reputation as a stable, rule-of-law-based economy protected by robust checks and balances against political corruption. Many worry even the oldest democracy might fail as Trump 2.0 does its worst to distort the lines between fact and fiction.

Korea must learn from these mistakes. The cost of Yoon’s election fraud theories could be the loss of Koreans’ confidence in their government and global investors’ belief the economy deserves an upgrade to developed nation status. What Yoon did on Dec. 3 was put Korea in league with other modern-day martial law declarers like Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand.

To be sure, few in Seoul are colored in glory here. The NEC has done itself no favors by appearing to silence valid questions about cracks in its cybersecurity capabilities. If there’s nothing to hide, top NEC officials should be bending over backward not just to answer questions but to reassure a perplexed nation.

The U.S., for all its problems, had Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia. As U.S. special counsel, Mueller, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation director, looked into foreign influence in the 2016 election.

A similar probe, endowed with expansive investigative powers, is needed in Korea. This would make it harder for the NEC and National Assembly to avoid scrutiny. It would be difficult to deflect questions about everything from fraud to cyber readiness. At the same time, it’s a useful way to dispense with conspiracy theories.

Korea can devise its own mechanism to shine daylight on Yoon’s talk of shadowy plots and vague schemes to undermine his People Power Party. It should do so urgently, transparently and credibly to ensure Korea emerges from this political nightmare with its national reputation somewhat intact.

So far, Yoon has failed to put country over base politics. No one likes losing an election, whether it’s a presidential or National Assembly contest. But unless there’s clear evidence something is amiss, accept your comeuppance from voters and try harder next time.

With his approval ratings under 20 percent even before Dec. 3, it’s quite possible that Yoon just isn’t very good at this president thing. Since then, Yoon, with his election interference talk and selfish actions, continues to prove it, a bit more each day.

William Pesek is a longtime Asia opinion writer, based in Tokyo. He is a former columnist for Bloomberg and Barron’s and author of “Japanization: What the World Can Learn from Japan’s Lost Decades.”