Philip Patrick

The aftershocks of last Tuesday’s declaration, and then cancellation, of martial law by President Yoon Suk Yeol continue to be felt by South Korea’s ruling elite. Every day brings a new development and fresh revelations in this shocking and somewhat bizarre episode, along with evidence of the deep fissures in what had seemed a stable and relatively harmonious society. Yoon survived an impeachment vote on 7 December, but will likely face another on Saturday. He is under police investigation and two attempts have reportedly been made to raid his parliamentary office. There have been protests and strikes (by metalworkers at Kia plants) in a push for his exit. He has vowed to fight on.

Six hours. That was the duration of the profoundly disturbing and simultaneously farcical version of martial law invoked by South Korea’s president Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday night – the country’s first experience of military rule for 40 years. It was so brief in duration that if you weren’t plugged in to social media or watching TV you may not have been aware it had even occurred. What this brief but extraordinary episode amounted to was a deployment of troops to the parliament building to bar the entrance of lawmakers. That operation failed utterly, as protesters were quickly on the scene to take on the military, in some cases with fire extinguishers, and facilitate the entrance of the representatives.

In a dramatic and unnanounced move, South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Tuesday in a live broadcast on YTN television. Yoon did not specify exactly what measures would be taken but justified the decision as necessary to ‘safeguard constitutional order’.  Yoon accused opposition parties, which have a majority in the South Korean parliament, of taking the parliamentary process hostage, a reference presumably to a motion by the opposition Democratic party to impeach some of the country’s top prosecutors and the rejection of the government’s recent budget proposal.  What on earth is Yoon up to playing with fire like this?

It’s a reasonable bet that if Jeremy Clarkson stood for prime minister tomorrow, he’d win by a country mile. Some might even crown him the next sovereign. At the farmers’ protest in Westminster yesterday, Clarkson dominated the coverage, overshadowing even the other luminaries in attendance. Like Trump, Clarkson has name recognition, independence, and a flair for media Several high-profile Conservatives were present, including Kemi Badenoch, Priti Patel, and Robert Jenrick, alongside Nigel Farage in bespoke country-gent attire and Richard Tice from Reform. Yet they were all eclipsed by a shambling, frail figure in a moth-eaten pea coat, faded jeans, and a beanie hat: Jeremy Clarkson.

What now? This is the question on everyone’s lips here in Tokyo after a dramatic general election which looks to have inflicted a potentially grievous wound on Japan’s eternal party of government. The Liberal Democratic Party (known as Jiminto) led by the barely broken-in new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba lost its overall majority, even if its partners, the Buddhism-associated Komeito, are factored into the equation.  The result was a mess In one of the worse nights in its history, the LDP, who have held power for 65 out of the last 69 years, lost 68 seats. They remain the largest party overall but will now have to scramble to put together a multi-party coalition, an arrangement likely so flimsy it might as well be made of rice paper.

Is a major scandal over the sale of Newcastle United to a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund about to engulf the club? And perhaps cause embarrassment to some high-profile politicians too? Leaked WhatsApps sent by Amanda Staveley (the businesswoman who helped negotiate the deal) made the front page of the Daily Telegraph yesterday. They suggest that assurances given during the takeover that Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman was not personally managing the deal were not quite accurate. Mohammed Bin Salman will probably have no direct role in the running of the club Staveley’s WhatsApps reveal that a delicate stage of the negotiations the Crown Prince was ‘losing patience’. Does that mean that the Gulf potentate was really calling the shots?

It has been an alarming day in Tokyo as political terror returned to the streets of the capital. A man was arrested for throwing Molotov cocktails at the headquarters of the ruling party Jiminto (LDP) in the centre of the city. The bombs hit a police vehicle and the resultant fire was soon extinguished. Today’s attack marks the third time homemade weapons were employed The man who threw the Molotovs, identified as 49-year-old Atsunobu Usuda from Saitama, near Tokyo, then tried to drive his car into the grounds of the prime minister’s office, but he couldn’t get through the metal barrier. After that he tried to throw a smoke bomb at police. Then he was arrested. The man’s wrecked van was found to contain 10 unused firebombs.

The 67-year-old Shigeru Ishiba will become Japan’s new prime minister on 1 October after winning a surprisingly exciting play-off vote against his rival Sanae Takaichi. For a moment it looked as if Japanese MPs were set to elect the country’s first female leader (Takaichi was ahead of Ishiba in the first round of voting) but in the end the Liberal Democratic party (LDP) opted for experience and former defence minister Ishiba’s safe, and crucially clean pair of hands. Ishiba is at first glance a typical Japanese politician and an unexciting choice for PM. He’s a former banker and has been in politics for nearly 40 years. He doesn’t have a particularly interesting backstory or much in the way of charisma. He looked like the dullest of the final three candidates.

An important international conference will take place this week in South Korea, focused on the peninsula’s security concerns. The UK will not be participating. The reason? A lack of female ‘representation’, apparently. It seems that all the 18 of the initially invited speakers to the Global Korea Forum were men, though since the UK pullout three more speakers have been included, one of whom is female.  A spokesperson from the British Embassy told the Korea Times that ‘the ambassador (Colin Crooks) is unable to take part in the Global Korea Forum next week. The British Embassy is committed to gender equality. We believe that events are enriched by the diversity of perspectives of those participating.