The president of South Korea early Wednesday lifted the martial law he imposed on the country hours earlier, bending to political pressure after a tense night in which troops surrounded parliament and lawmakers voted to reject military rule.
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00:00We will accept the request of the National Assembly through the National Assembly to cancel the meeting.
00:08However, since it is still early in the morning,
00:16we will cancel the meeting as soon as possible because the number of votes has not been met yet.
00:24However, we ask the National Assembly to immediately stop the reckless actions that paralyze the function of the country with repeated corruption, legal nonsense, and budget nonsense.
00:54We are keeping him appraised of the developments as well as monitoring closely what's happening on the ground.
01:02Let me also just mention that our alliance with the Republic of Korea is ironclad, and we're fully committed to that.
01:09Ultimately, our hope and expectation is that any political disputes will be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law.
01:20Ultimately, for us, as I said, we want to see these political disputes resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law.
01:27Of course, such a vote in the legislature would be consistent with that approach,
01:33but we're continuing to remain in close touch with our ROK counterparts,
01:37and I'm sure we'll read out any conversations that may or may not take place over the coming days.
01:42I'm certainly going to keep private diplomatic conversations as that.
01:46I'll keep them private.
01:47I think what I can say is that we were not notified of President Yun's announcement in advance.
01:52But beyond that, I think the important thing to remember, Sean, is that ultimately at the crux of this is not President Biden, President Yun, these two specific governments.
02:05What this is about is the broader strategic relationship and the broader strategic partnership that we have with the Republic of Korea.
02:13And that alliance, as I said, is ironclad.
02:17There continues to be, in our point of view, a lot of important work that we want to continue to do with the Republic of Korea.
02:25The emphasis that this administration particularly has put in strengthening our partnerships and alliances in the Indo-Pacific, that has not or does not change either.