South Korea’s beleaguered President Yoon Suk Yeol has now been formally charged with insurrection and will stand trial. Yoon remains in office though formal duties have been suspended. He was arrested Jan. 15, but his salary continues, and he still received a planned raise.

He is the first president of South Korea to be formally charged with a crime while still in office.

The crisis began on Dec. 3, when Yoon formally declared and attempted to impose martial law amid political turmoil caused by accusations of corruption.

Soldiers did surround and enter the National Assembly but did not actually take control of the building. The massive popular protest of Yoon’s move included members of his own political party.

This serious crisis overshadows but does not undo South Korea's progress.

As recently as the early 1960s, the nation was one of the poorest in the world. A peasant society, the entire Korean Peninsula was devastated by the Korean War of........

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