US state officials caught totally off guard
Officials in the US State Department were caught totally off guard by President Yoon’s martial law announcement. It's hard to overstate the strategic importance of the alliance between Washington and Seoul - the US has nearly 30,000 troops in the country which it vows to defend from its nuclear armed neighbour in the north through a wide ranging set of defence agreements. So for Seoul’s leadership to take such a drastic step without even telling Washington - as the State Department contends - is extraordinary. The US says it had no advance warning Yoon would declare martial law. It is not entirely clear whether Secretary of State Antony Blinken - currently in Brussels - was able to speak to his counterpart during the height of this crisis. Now Yoon has said he will reverse his order I think Washington is wondering what an earth has happened - and will be rapidly reassessing how reliable the leadership of an ally it considers a bedrock of democratic stability in the region actually is.
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