March 5, 2025
Seoul – The National Assembly’s extraordinary March meeting is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, but this has attracted attention due to the rule and whether the opposition can handle emergency bills, including the supplementary budget, due to the intensified partisan conflict, which is regrettably consistent with street protests against impeachment president Yoon Suk Yeol.
Since Yoon issued the martial arts declaration on December 3, South Korea has fallen into political turmoil, social division and economic uncertainty. At a time when the country is in desperate need of national unity and reconciliation to address pressing challenges, rival parties continue to argue with Yoon’s impeachment and other ethnic issues, in some cases exacerbating social and political conflict.
This situation was fully exhibited on March 1, when competitor members joined many (both Yoon and against Yoon) at a rally held nationwide. The demonstrations came ahead of the Constitutional Court's imminent ruling on the Yintan case.
Dozens of MPs who ruled the People's Power Party gathered in Yeouido and Gwanghwamun in Seoul to join two different rallies against Yoon's imprisonment each and called for a restoration. According to police, two protests organized by conservative groups attracted an estimated 120,000 participants.
Meanwhile, South Korea's main opposition Democratic Party led a rally asking the court to maintain Yoon improvisation near Wonbang. The gathering, including Democratic lawmakers and Rep. Lee Jae-Myung, had an estimated turnout of 18,000 people.
All three gatherings reportedly arranged for renting buses to transport supporters from all over the country.
The ruling and opposition parties will escalate on March 8 ahead of the Impotence Court’s improvisation ruling.
Protests and partisan divisions are now lowering public expectations for an extraordinary meeting of the National Assembly in March. There are concerns that the ruling and opposition parties may not compromise with each other like in February at an extraordinary meeting, where they failed to phase out agreements on supplementary budgets, pension reforms, inheritance tax adjustments and special bills on semiconductors.
Another disappointing development is the cancellation of a scheduled trilateral advisory body discussion between the ruling party, opposition party and government to see the dispute over Ma Eun-Hyuk's nomination for the Constitutional Court judicial.
A survey showed that with the state’s political circles, it turned out that public perceptions of social conflict in South Korea reached the highest level last year. In various forms of secession, ideological conflict between conservatives and progressives is considered the most serious, ultimately transcending regional or economic differences, which is the biggest obstacle to national unity. The findings come from the Korean Institute of Health and Social Affairs, which was investigated between June and September last year.
When ideological conflicts penetrate into daily life, rational gentle voices tend to be silent and social divisions deepen. If this polarization persists, worry about whether the state can recover from the wounds and improper processes of martial arts crisis and achieve meaningful social cohesion.
The uncertainty facing South Korea is so strong that even with a unified front, it is difficult to drive them. The economy is struggling with weak domestic demand, which prompted South Korea to cut benchmark interest rates last week, due to concerns about swinging exchange rates and heavy trade barriers initiated by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Given the seriousness of the situation at home and abroad, South Korea’s political leaders must realize that the terrible consequences of cheering and division jeopardize the future of the country.
