EVENTS

The declaration of emergency martial law by the President of South Korea Yoon Suk-yeol on 3 December 2024, took not only South Koreans, but the whole world by surprise. The live video footage of soldiers breaking glass windows of the National Assembly, army helicopters landing in the National Assembly compound and military personnel searching the National Election Commission’s office was very alarming. Fortunately, the National Assembly was able to convene an emergency session and nullify the emergency martial law. Afterwards, the National Assembly also passed a bill to impeach the President and the matter is now in the Constitutional Court. In all probability, Yoon Suk-yeol’s impeachment will be completed and political normalcy will come back in South Korea within a few months. However, the ongoing political and legal moves in South Korea have demonstrated the weaknesses of the democratic institutions in the country. Even as South Korea’s stature as an economic and cultural power in the world is widely acknowledged and its polity has been substantially democratised since 1987, democratic institutions are still not sufficiently robust. Amongst many factors, the deep ideological divide in the country appears to be a dominant source of the weakness. In an age of social media, the divide has become more apparent and is highly polarised with little to no engagement between the different groups. In this context, the seminar will discuss the origins and manifestations of the ongoing political crisis and the possible future trajectory of the South Korean polity.

About the Speaker

Sandip Kumar Mishra is a Professor in Korean Studies at the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. He is also an Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS), New Delhi and a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS), New Delhi. He obtained his doctoral degree in Korean Studies and International Relations from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He studied Korean Language at Yonsei University and Sogang University. He has published several research articles and book chapters, and features in newspapers such as Korea Times, The Tribune, The Indian Express, Financial Express, The Pioneer, Times of India, and The Statesman.

About the Chair

Alka Acharya is Director, Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi; and, Professor and Chairperson at the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where she has been teaching and guiding doctoral research since 1993. From April 2012 to March 2017, she was full-time Director and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Chinese Studies. She was Editor of the quarterly journal China Report (New Delhi) from 2005-2013. She was nominated by the Indian government as a member of the India-China Eminent Persons Group (2006-2008) and was a member of the National Security Advisory Board of the Government of India for two terms (2006-2008) and (2011-2012). Her publications include Crossing a Bridge of Dreams: 50 years of India-China (co-edited, 2001), China & India: Politics of Incremental Engagement, (2008) and most recently, Boundaries and Borderlands: A Century after the 1914 Simla Convention (Routledge, New York 2023). Her current research focuses on India-China-Russia Trilateral Cooperation.

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