On a recent winter afternoon, members of the Korean American Senior Association of Howard County spent their afternoon taking a Zumba class, singing karaoke in their native language and line dancing at the Bain 50+ Center in Columbia.
But behind most of their smiles and laughs that afternoon was fear and pain they felt for their home country of South Korea.
The country’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, was impeached in December after trying to declare martial law. He was later sent to a detention center after questioning. It marked the first time in 45 years that martial law was declared in South Korea.
“South Korea is in danger,” said Yong Yun, who supports Yoon.
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Yun, 78, has lived in Howard County since 1979. While most of her family is in the United States, some members are still in South Korea, including her uncle, nephew and a cousin.
More than 15,000 Korean Americans call Howard County home. Up and down a busy section of Route 40 in Ellicott City, one can find dozens of Asian-owned businesses and restaurants.
In 2016, the Maryland Department of Transportation named the 5-mile stretch “Korean Way.”
While Yun and a few other KASA members feel scared about the future of South Korea, worried that it will fall to North Korea and China, that feeling isn’t universal.
There is a generational divide in responses to what’s happening in South Korea, said Deokhyo Choi, an assistant professor of history at the University of Maryland.
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When Yoon declared martial law in December, he accused the opposition Democratic Party of being a “legislative dictatorship,” and that by declaring martial law, Yoon was defending South Korea from the “threats of North Korean communist forces and to eradicate the shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces.”
“Older people think that the young liberals will hand over South Korea to North Korea and China,” Choi said.
Yoon is part of the People Power Party, a conservative and right-wing political party in South Korea. The Democratic Party is led by Lee Jae-myung, a liberal who narrowly lost the 2022 election to Yoon.
A former student activist and human rights lawyer, Lee was convicted last fall of violating election law and received a suspended prison term.
In December, about 50 Korean Americans gathered in front of the White House to call for Yoon’s impeachment after his brief martial law attempt and to show support for a resilient democracy, according to The Korea Times.
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“I was very frustrated and ashamed when watching the martial law news updates,” said Cho Hyun-sook, a D.C.-area activist who attended the rally, according to the English-language newspaper.
In Howard County, some older Korean-Americans are more sympathetic to the former president. According to The New York Times, Yoon has a large YouTube following and has accused critical journalists of spreading “fake news” while claiming that political opponents favor “Communist totalitarianism.”
“We hear that China and North Korea are behind all those people to tell them what to do,” said Yun, referring to Yoon’s opponents. “So that’s why we’re fighting each other: the left and the right.”
Choi, who was born in Japan, lived in South Korea from 2016 to 2018. During that time, President Park Geun-hye was impeached and later sent to prison after being convicted of bribery and other criminal charges.
Like Yoon, Geun-hye was a member of the conservative party during her presidency. Unlike Yoon, Park Geun-hye did not declare martial law. She apologized for her actions and was later pardoned and freed.
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“President Yoon declared martial law without any legal basis and it is obviously a violation against the constitutional code,” Choi said.
Yun said that Yoon had the authority to declare martial law because the government is in danger. Yoon claimed that the “rule of law has completely collapsed in this country.”
Yoon is an unpopular president, said Choi, adding he’s had a difficult time passing any laws or legislation. Last spring, South Korean voters gave the opposition Democratic Party and its coalition partners the upper hand in South Korea’s parliament, The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea.
After April’s election, Yoon’s supporters adopted President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” slogan, which became a rallying cry of Trump’s supporters after he falsely claimed he won the 2020 election.
Yun and Myong Ahn, an 82-year-old Columbia resident, are hopeful that Trump will step in and help stop South Korea from becoming a communist country.
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Speaking through an interpreter, Ahn said that “because the communist left wing force is so powerful now, he wishes that President Trump’s influence can help stabilize South Korea.”
Trump ironically boasted of his warm relationship with North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un, and in 2019 became the first sitting U.S. president to step foot into that country, taking 20 steps into it to shake Kim’s hand.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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