This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
The latest news is that there was a vote, the National Assembly had about 190, in presence, and 190 voted to not enact a state of emergency. This, in effect, nullifies Yoon's attempt at enacting this. And we have seen that troops and tanks that were stationed near the National Assembly have been removed.
Now, the question is, is will this continue to be followed, and will there be a recognition of the constitutional power that is held within the National Assembly, or will there be push back, domestically from either the presidential office or on the military leadership.
On the more optimistic side, I think this says that South Korea is still a thriving and an expansive democracy. We did see a push by the presidential office to enact this martial law. And yet we saw the National Assembly push back, as is constitutionally allowed, which means that in many ways, South Korea is defending its historical legacy as a democracy. Unfortunately, it does mean that the administration is likely to see the consequences of this action, and it most likely will be to, unfortunately not increase its power standing domestically, but rather, continue to lower his domestic standing and position within the nation. And so there's been already conversations concerning impeachment, but we'll have to wait and see what will happen in the future.
In particular, I mean, obviously the United States and South Korea were very close, close security partnerships with the US, ROK Alliance. And furthermore, the administration has really helped spearhead collaboration and cooperation with Japan. So the US, South Korea, Japan, trilateral relations was really under his administration in the past few years. And what I think is most unfortunate is that if we do see a continuation of domestic pushback against Yoon and the weakening of his presidency through this recent action, we're likely also to see South Korea as a whole take a step back from some of the same policies that he's been focusing on.
I think we're likely to see, a reset, so to speak. So taking a step back, I think both the United States and South Korea and honestly, colleagues all over the world are quite shocked by this development. It has been four decades since South Korea has enacted a martial law domestically, as I mentioned before, since the 1980s. And so I think everyone is in a bit of shock. I do think we're already seeing domestic pushback. We've already seen protesters, were already seeing approval ratings dropping. This will have legacy and consequences for the administration. This decision, whether it was made in a snap moment or through advising on that was not accurate, This will mean, that his legacy, unfortunately, will be marred by the fact that he did attempt to initialize martial law.