Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Wednesday that Tokyo was monitoring the situation in South Korea with “exceptional and serious concerns” after the Asian neighbor’s president declared then revoked martial law overnight.
Ishiba also said Tokyo was unaware of “any information suggesting that Japanese citizens (living in South Korea) were injured.”
Speaking to reporters at his office, Ishiba added the government was “taking all possible measures” to ensure the safety of Japanese nationals, including issuing warnings through consular emails.
“We will continue to do everything we can to ensure their safety,” he said.
His remarks follow South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol surprising the world overnight with a declaration of martial law that he would abandon just hours later after lawmakers voted against it.
Yoon’s shock bid to impose martial law for the first time in over four decades plunged South Korea into the deepest turmoil in its modern democratic history and caught close allies around the world off guard.
The dramatic developments also left the future of Yoon — a conservative politician and former star public prosecutor who was elected president in 2022 — in jeopardy.
South Korea’s main opposition party — whose lawmakers jumped fences and tussled with security forces so they could vote to overturn the law — demanded that Yoon step down immediately over the attempted “insurrection”.
