Yoon Suk Yeol won South Korea’s highest office in 2022 by a threadbare margin, the closest since his country abandoned military rule in the 1980s and began holding free presidential elections.

2022年，尹锡悦以微弱的优势赢得了韩国总统大选，自韩国在20世纪80年代放弃军事统治、开始举行自由选举以来，这是两名候选人之间差距最小的一次。

Just over two years later, Mr. Yoon’s brief declaration of martial law on Tuesday shocked South Koreans who had hoped that tumultuous era of military intervention was behind them. Thousands of protesters gathered in Seoul to call for his arrest. Their country, regarded as a model of cultural soft power and an Asian democratic stalwart, had suddenly taken a sharp turn in another direction.

两年多之后的本周二，尹锡悦短暂宣布戒严令，令原本希望那个动荡的军事干预时代已经过去的韩国人感到震惊。数以千计的抗议者聚集在首尔，要求逮捕尹锡悦。他们的国家曾被视为文化软实力的典范和亚洲民主的中坚力量，如今却突然转向另一个方向。

But the events that led to Mr. Yoon’s stunning declaration on Tuesday — and his decision six hours later to lift the decree after Parliament voted to block it — were set in motion well before his razor-thin victory. They were a dramatic illustration of South Korea’s bitterly polarized politics and the deep societal discontent beneath the surface of its rising global might.

但是，尹锡悦周二发表这一惊人声明——以及六小时之后，国会投票否决该戒严令的情况下，他决定取消戒严令——的肇因，始于他以微弱优势获胜之前。它们戏剧性地展现了韩国政治的严重两极化，以及在它日益强大的全球实力表象下深刻的社会不满情绪。

It all came to a head when Mr. Yoon, once a hard-charging prosecutor who investigated former presidents, found himself on the receiving end of a political onslaught by a galvanized opposition.

尹锡悦曾是负责调查前总统的强硬检察官，当他发现自己正受到愤怒的反对派的政治攻击时，一切都变得岌岌可危。

Victory, but no mandate

获胜，但没有授权

Mr. Yoon, a conservative leader, has never been popular in South Korea. He won election by a margin of only 0.8 percentage points. The vote, analysts said, was more a referendum on his liberal predecessor’s failures than an endorsement of Mr. Yoon.

作为保守派领导人，尹锡悦在韩国从来都不受欢迎。他仅以0.8个百分点的优势赢得了选举。分析人士说，那次投票与其说是对尹锡悦的支持，不如说是表明属于自由派的前任总统是多么失败的全民公决。

The bitterness of the campaign was reflected in a statement by Mr. Yoon’s main opponent, Lee Jae-myung, who would go on to lead the opposition to the Yoon government in Parliament.

竞选的激烈程度从尹锡悦的主要对手李在明的声明中可见一斑，李在明后来在议会中领导反对尹锡悦政府的反对派。

“I sincerely ask the president-elect to lead the country over the divide and conflict and open an era of unity and harmony,” he said.

“我真诚地请求候任总统领导这个国家超越分裂和冲突，开启一个团结与和谐的时代，”他写道。

尹锡悦总统于2022年5月宣誓就职。

Mr. Yoon, 63, was an unlikely figure to guide the nation to reconciliation. As prosecutor general, he helped convict and imprison a former leader of his own party, Park Geun-hye​, after her impeachment as president. Specializing in corruption cases, he had also pursued another former president and the head of Samsung.

63岁的尹锡悦不太可能是引导国家走向和解的人物。作为总检察长，在朴槿惠任总统期间被弹劾后，他曾参与了对这位自己政党前领导人的定罪，将她关入监狱。专门调查腐败案件的他还曾起诉另一位前总统和三星集团总裁。

As Mr. Yoon investigated Ms. Park, the administration he worked for continued a long pattern in South Korea in which new leaders launch inquiries into their predecessors, contributing to the rancorous nature of the country’s politics.

在尹锡悦调查朴槿惠的过程中，他任职的政府延续了韩国长期以来的一种模式：新领导人会对前任展开调查，这加剧了韩国政治中的敌对本质。

Running for office, Mr. Yoon vehemently criticized his former boss, the progressive president Moon Jae-in, for meeting with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, but failing to stop his nuclear ambitions. He called for ratcheting up military drills and for strict enforcement of sanctions on the North, envisioning a South Korea that wielded its influence as a major U.S. ally in Asia.

在竞选时，尹锡悦强烈批评他的前任上司、进步派总统文在寅与朝鲜领导人金正恩会面，却未能阻止朝鲜的核野心。他呼吁加强军事演习，并严格执行对朝鲜的制裁，把韩国设想为美国在亚洲的主要盟友，从而发挥其影响力。

“Peace is meaningless unless it is backed by power,” Mr. Yoon said during the campaign. “War can be avoided only when we acquire an ability to launch pre-emptive strikes and show our willingness to use them.”

“除非有实力做后盾，否则和平毫无意义，”尹锡悦在竞选期间说。“只有当我们有能力发动先发制人的打击，并表现出使用它们的意愿时，战争才能避免。”

The approach won him favor in Washington, where the Biden administration was glad to have South Korea align itself more closely with American positions as a bulwark against China. But it did little for him at home, where he was locked in perpetual war with the opposition even as his domestic challenges mounted.

这种方式为他赢得了华盛顿的支持，拜登政府很高兴韩国能够更紧密地与美国站在一起，成为对抗中国的堡垒。但这对尹锡悦在国内的处境没有什么帮助，他在国内面临的挑战越来越多，还陷入了与反对派无休止的斗争中。

A cauldron of discontent

不满情绪的熔炉

Despite South Korea’s growing influence around the world — in business, film, television and music — vertiginous inequality has fueled widespread discontent at home. Skyrocketing home prices have forced people to live in ever-smaller spaces at ever-greater cost. Recent college graduates have struggled to find suitable work, sometimes accusing older generations of locking them out.

尽管韩国在商业、电影、电视和音乐领域的全球影响力日益增强，但极度的不平等在国内引发了广泛的不满。飞涨的房价迫使人们以越来越高的成本住在越来越小的空间里。刚毕业的大学生很难找到合适的工作，有时会指责老一代人把他们拒之门外。

Many young people, facing uncertain economic prospects, are reluctant to marry or have children, and the country has both a rapidly aging population and the world’s lowest birthrate. Increasingly, voters have blamed their political opponents, as well as immigrants and feminists.

面对不确定的经济前景，许多年轻人不愿结婚或生孩子，而且该国人口迅速老龄化，是世界上出生率最低的国家。选民们越来越多地指责政治对手，以及移民和女权主义者。

俯瞰首尔，2022年。

Critics of Mr. Yoon, whose campaign promised to abolish South Korea’s ministry of gender equality, accused him of playing on some of those divides, saying he stoked biases, especially among young men.

尹锡悦在竞选活动中承诺废除韩国主管性别平等的部门，批评者指责他利用了其中的一些分歧，说他煽动偏见，尤其是在年轻男性当中。

From the start, however, Mr. Yoon faced two obstacles.

然而，从一开始，尹锡悦就面临着两个障碍。

The opposition Democratic Party held on to its majority in the National Assembly and then expanded it in parliamentary elections in April, making him the first South Korean leader in decades to never have a majority in Parliament. And then there were his own dismal approval ratings.

反对党共同民主党在国民议会中保持了多数席位，并在4月的国会选举中扩大了多数优势，使他成为数十年来首位在议会中从未获得过多数席位的韩国领导人。此外，他本人的支持率也很低。

Mr. Yoon’s toxic relationship with opposition lawmakers — and their vehement efforts to oppose him at every turn — paralyzed his pro-business agenda for two years, hindering his efforts to cut corporate taxes, overhaul the national pension system and address housing prices.

尹锡悦与反对党议员之间的恶性关系——以及他们在各方面都极力反对他——使他的亲商议程瘫痪了两年，阻碍了他削减公司税、改革国家养老金制度和解决房价问题的努力。

An election fueled by vitriol

因谩骂而火上浇油的选举

Mr. Yoon’s party had seen the 2024 elections as an opportunity to win back the chamber.

尹锡悦的政党曾将2024年的选举视为赢回国会的机会。

Instead the crises and scandals built. A Halloween celebration became a deadly catastrophe, and North Korea ramped up its threats. Doctors went on strike, describing a medical system of harsh working conditions and low wages. Allegations of corruption involving Mr. Yoon’s wife and a $2,200 Dior pouch roiled his party, with one senior member comparing her to Marie Antoinette.

然而，危机和丑闻越来越多。一场万圣节庆祝活动变成了致命灾难，朝鲜加大了威胁力度。许多医生举行罢工，称医疗系统工作条件恶劣、工资过低。涉及尹锡悦妻子和一个价值2200美元的迪奥手袋的腐败指控在他的政党中掀起了轩然大波，一名高级成员将她比作玛丽·安托瓦内特。

Protests organized on social media by rival political activists became common, with a rough division of churchgoers and other older citizens on the right, and mostly younger people on the left.

敌对政治活动人士在社交媒体上组织的抗议活动变得很常见，左右两派形成激烈对峙，右派大致是去教堂的人和其他年长公民，左派则主要是年轻人。

The election devolved into vicious recriminations, with left-wing protesters calling Mr. Yoon a “national traitor” over what they called his anti-feminist policies and attacks on news outlets he accused of spreading “fake news.” They also criticized him for the Halloween crowd crush and his efforts to improve ties with Japan, the onetime colonial ruler of Korea.

选举演变成了恶毒的相互指责，左翼抗议者说尹锡悦的政策是反女权主义的，称他为“民族叛徒”；他们还攻击他指责新闻机构传播“假新闻”。他们批评他在万圣节人群踩踏事件中的表现，以及他改善韩日关系的努力。日本曾是韩国的殖民统治者。

Opposition leaders warned that Mr. Yoon was taking South Korea onto the path of “dictatorship.” In turn, members of Mr. Yoon’s party called the opposition “criminals,” and voters on the right rallied against what they called “pro-North Korean communists.”

反对派领导人警告说，尹锡悦正在把韩国带上“独裁统治”的道路。尹锡悦所在政党的成员称反对派是“罪犯”，右翼选民则联合起来反对他们所称的“亲朝鲜共产主义者”。

(Mr. Yoon echoed that language on Tuesday in his declaration of martial law, saying he was issuing it “to protect a free South Korea from the North Korean communist forces, eliminate shameless pro-North Korean and anti-state forces.”)

（周二，尹锡悦在宣布戒严时重复了上述措辞，称他宣布戒严是“捍卫自由大韩民国免受朝鲜共产主义势力的威胁，剿灭掠夺我国人民自由和幸福的无耻亲朝鲜反国家势力”。)

周二，反对党领袖在国会外发言。

The election in April ultimately granted the opposition one of the biggest parliamentary majorities in South Korea in decades.

4月份的选举最终使反对党获得了韩国几十年来最大的议会多数。

Many South Koreans called it “Judgment Day.” But the outcome also solidified the deadlock in the government, restricting either party’s ability to agree on the national budget or address the public’s complaints. The acrimony only deepened as the opposition moved to impeach several members of Mr. Yoon’s government.

许多韩国人称那一天为“审判日”。但选举结果也进一步强化了政府内部的僵局，限制了双方就国家预算达成一致或解决公众不满的能力。随着反对派开始弹劾尹锡悦政府的几名成员，双方的敌意进一步加深。

In the aftermath of the April vote, the prime minister and many of the president’s top aides resigned. Mr. Yoon’s chief of staff relayed a message from the president, who was quoted as saying he would “overhaul the way the government is run.”

在4月的投票之后，总理和总统的许多高级助手辞职。尹锡悦的幕僚长转达了总统的口信，并援引总统的话称，总统将“彻底改革政府的运作方式”。

But by Tuesday night, Mr. Yoon had turned startlingly defiant. He declared that “the National Assembly, which should have been the foundation of free democracy, has become a monster that destroys it.”

但到在周二晚上，尹锡悦的态度变得惊人地强硬。他说：“本应成为自由民主主义基础的国会变成了摧毁自由民主主义的怪物。”

Not long after, as protesters rushed to the gates of the National Assembly, lawmakers voted to lift the president’s measure. Mr. Lee, the opposition leader, who survived a stabbing attack in January and later staged a hunger strike against the Yoon government, said Mr. Yoon had “betrayed the people.”

不久后，抗议者冲到国会门口，议员们投票取消了总统的戒严令。反对党领袖李在明说，尹锡悦“背叛了人民”，李在明于1月在一次刺杀事件中幸免于难，后来又以绝食抗议尹锡悦政府。”

Hours later, Mr. Yoon said he would comply with the legislature’s order. But even then, with his political future now thrown into profound uncertainty, he added a plea.

几个小时后，尹锡悦说他将遵守立法机关的命令。但即便如此，在他的政治前途陷入极度不确定的情况下，他还是提出了一个请求。

“I call on the National Assembly,” he said, “to immediately stop the outrageous behavior that is paralyzing the functioning of the country with impeachments, legislative manipulation and budget manipulation.”

“我呼吁国会，”他说，“立即停止通过弹劾、操纵立法和操纵预算等手段使国家运转陷入瘫痪的骇人行为。”

国会的警官。