Former US Ambassador to South Korea Philip Goldberg “raised his voice” to express grave concern during a phone conversation with an official from President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office in the chaotic initial hours of Yoon's martial law declaration on Dec. 3, a local media reported Thursday.
According to an exclusive interview in local daily DongA Ilbo, the first contact between Goldberg, the US envoy to Seoul at the time, and the South Korean government after Yoon’s shocking late-night announcement was a phone call from a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, who briefed him on Yoon's martial law orders. After hearing the decree that banned political activities and restricted the press, the top US diplomat expressed opposition, he said.
Goldberg then spoke with someone from Yoon’s office who appeared to know little about the martial law situation. Goldberg was quoted by DongA Ilbo as demanding further explanation on how the president could initiate such an action and expressing concern that it would severely damage Korea's reputation.
Goldberg, who on Tuesday stepped down as US ambassador to South Korea, however, denied rumors about his reports to the US government concerning the martial law decree. In the week after Yoon declared martial law, an opposition lawmaker here claimed that Goldberg described Yoon's officials as people he "cannot stand to deal with," in a report to Washington.
The US Embassy said the supposed comments were "utterly false."
Yoon's declaration of martial law was retracted in a little more than six hours, after the 190 lawmakers gathered at the National Assembly voted unanimously to nullify it in the wee hours of the morning of Dec. 4. The US government welcomed the rescinding of the martial order, with State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller saying, "We continue to expect political disagreements to be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law," in a press briefing Dec. 9.
Yoon is currently under criminal investigation and on trial for impeachment for leading an insurrection and committing abuse of power, concerning his martial law declaration and allegedly illegal orders related to it.
Goldberg was replaced by Joseph Yun, former US special representative for North Korea policy, as the acting US ambassador to Seoul.
