SEOUL: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday opened a visit to crisis-riven South Korea, where he will seek delicately to encourage continuity with the policies, but not tactics, of the impeached president.
The visit comes after a weekend that saw thousands of South Koreans brave a snowstorm to stage dueling rallies in support of and opposition to President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was suspended over a failed martial law bid and resisting arrest.
Blinken will meet his counterpart Cho Tae-yul later on Monday, the same day a warrant to arrest Yoon expires.
Yoon had once been a darling of the Biden administration with his bold moves to turn the page on friction with Japan and his eye on a greater role for South Korea on global issues.
The South Korean leader joined Biden for a landmark three-way summit with Japan’s prime minister and — months before declaring martial law — was picked to lead a global democracy summit, a signature initiative for the outgoing US administration.
Blinken’s trip is meant to highlight US President Joe Biden’s efforts to build alliances. He will head afterwards to Tokyo.
It was crucial, in the eyes of his advisers, not to snub South Korea, which has a fraught and often competitive relationship with Japan, also home to thousands of US troops.
It will likely be his final trip as secretary of state before US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
An attempt to arrest Yoon by investigators on Friday failed when a tense six-hour standoff with his presidential security service ended over fears of violence, with his supporters also camped outside.
Thousands descended on his residence again Sunday despite bitterly cold and snowy conditions blanketing the capital — with one camp demanding Yoon’s arrest while the other called for his impeachment to be declared invalid.
“Snow is nothing for me. They can bring all the snow and we’ll still be here,” said anti-Yoon protester Lee Jin-ah, 28.
“I quit my job to come to protect our country and democracy,” she said.
Yoon has pledged to “fight” those questioning his short-lived martial law move, and supporter Park Young-chul, in his 70s, likened the current situation to “war.”
“I went through war and minus 20 degrees in the snow to fight the commies. This snow is nothing. Our war is happening again,” he told AFP.
Yoon faces criminal charges of insurrection, one of a few crimes not subject to presidential immunity, meaning he could be sentenced to prison or, at worst, the death penalty.
If the warrant is executed, Yoon would become the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested.
Blinken may face some criticism from the South Korean political left for the visit but should be able to navigate the political crisis, said Sydney Seiler, a former US intelligence officer focused on Korea who is now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Blinken would mainly seek to keep the focus on challenges such as China and North Korea, he said.
In a statement, the State Department did not directly mention the political crisis but said Blinken would seek to preserve trilateral cooperation with Japan, which has included enhanced intelligence sharing on North Korea.
Blinken’s visit comes at a time of change for both countries, with Trump returning to the White House on January 20.
Paradoxically, while Biden worked closely with the conservative Yoon, Trump in his first term enjoyed a warm relationship with progressive then-president Moon Jae-in, who encouraged the US president’s groundbreaking personal diplomacy with North Korea.
The Biden administration has stressed since the crisis that it is reaching out to South Korean politicians across the divide, amid the uncertainties on who will lead Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
Progressive opposition leader Lee Jae-myung — who himself faces election disqualification in a court case — supports diplomacy with North Korea.
But the former labor activist has also taken stances that differ from those of both Biden and Trump.
Lee has criticized deployment of US-made THAAD missile defenses, which Washington says are meant to protect against North Korea but which China sees as a provocation.
South Korea’s left has long championed a harder stance on Japan over its brutal 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula.
US officials said they had no warning of Yoon’s imposition of martial law, which brought masses of protesters to the streets.