Here’s a question I have been bouncing off people since President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached in December. Given how clear it is what he did wrong to deserve this and, by contrast, how unclear it was when then-President Park Geun-hye was kicked out eight years ago, is it time for Korea to take a deep breath and right a historic wrong and apologize to Park?

Before you answer, let me expand upon the argument.

As Yoon battles his impeachment and the insurrection charge in courts, there is a sense of dust-free clarity in the political air over Korea. So much so that we may imagine ambassadors here, who frankly are often at a loss to explain things, writing reports to their foreign ministries that spell out quite clearly what’s going on.

They can’t be 100 percent certain as to the outcome — and nor should they be, otherwise, the constitutional and criminal proceedings against Yoon would not be trials in the proper sense of the word — but we all know why it is all happening. There is a good and indisputable reason. We are experiencing the clarity of a democracy taking care of itself.

Even Yoon’s supporters can accept that, while his late-night declaration of martial law on Dec. 3 may have been rescinded before breakfast without anybody getting hurt, it was not harmless. It delivered a deep shock to two........

© The Korea Times