WSJ What’s News - Turmoil in Seoul: What We Know

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

A.M. Edition for Dec. 4. A day after declaring martial law, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is facing the prospect of impeachment. The WSJ’s Timothy Martin helps us make sense of a historic 24 hours. Plus, with Donald Trump’s choice of Pete Hegseth to run the Pentagon facing mounting scrutiny, the president-elect mulls replacing him with Gov. Ron DeSantis. And Marine Le Pen prepares to square off with France’s government and markets in a no-confidence vote today. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amazon Q Business is the generative AI assistant from AWS because business can be slow, like wading through mud. But Amazon Q helps streamline work. So tasks like summarizing monthly results can be done in no time. Learn what Amazon Q Business can do for you at AWS.com slash learn more. Donald Trump weighs a shakeup in his pick to run the Pentagon as Pete Hegseth faces scrutiny in Washington. Plus, the latest from South Korea after a tumultuous 24 hours for the country's politics.

Most people you would encounter in South Korea have painful memories of the era of militarized rule. So to see a modern president attempt something that seemed to be a relic of the past was quite shocking to many South Koreans and angered many of them. And France's government faces a no confidence vote spurred by a budget showdown. It's Wednesday, December 4th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal.

And here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. The top headlines and business stories moving your world today. We are exclusively reporting that Donald Trump is considering Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as his pick to run the Pentagon, possibly replacing his current nominee, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth. Republican senators are concerned over mounting sexual assault and other allegations that Hegseth is facing, and while none have publicly said they would oppose him, they have warned him that he'd face a grilling during public confirmation hearings.

DeSantis, who served as a Navy lawyer in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay, competed against Trump in this year's GOP presidential primary and was on an early list of candidates to run the Defense Department before Trump chose Hegseth, whom he still publicly backs. A spokesman for DeSantis didn't respond to a request for comment. Last month, Trump was dealt a setback when former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration to be attorney general under pressure in the midst of sexual misconduct and drug use allegations. And yesterday, the president-elect's pick to run the drug enforcement agency, Florida County Sheriff Chad Chronister, also pulled his name from consideration after coming under

attack from conservatives over the arrest in 2020 of a pastor who defied COVID-19 restrictions. A day after South Korea's president imposed a short-lived period of martial law, prompting immediate protests and a swift vote by parliamentarians to undo the emergency measure, Yoon Seok-yul's tenure in office hangs in the balance. That's as opposition parties in the country today submitted a motion to impeach him that could receive a vote as early as Friday. And here to make sense of a historic 24 hours in South Korean politics, I'm joined by our Bureau Chief in Seoul, Tim Martin. Tim, before we look at this impeachment motion and the potential significance of a leadership

change in South Korea, do we have any clearer sense now of why Yoon yesterday declared martial law? It was a pretty abrupt and destabilizing announcement to say the least. We don't, unfortunately. Only Yoon himself can really provide that granularity. There's lots of speculation. There's an awareness that Yoon is unpopular. His approval ratings fell to record lows recently. He's dealing with a very contentious opposition party and in fighting with his own conservative party. The public reason that Yoon Seok-yul has said he declared martial law was because his political

enemies are anti-state forces and he's worried for the country's future. But why does he feel that way? He hasn't really articulated the true underpinnings beyond listing a budget fight, beyond worrying about the direction of the country that it's becoming too leftist. But there's a gap between those problems and the solution that you'd seem to think he needed by declaring martial law. Nat. And Tim, the rapid response we saw in opposition to that declaration yesterday is reflective, is it not, of South Korea's very in opposition to that declaration yesterday is reflective,

is it not, of South Korea's very recent history when it comes to martial law, right? Very recent. Most people you would encounter in South Korea have vivid memories, painful memories of the era of militarized rule that stopped only in 1987. So to see a modern president attempt something that seemed to be a relic of the past was quite shocking to many South Koreans and angered many of them. Indeed, and now Yoon's political future is on the line. What should we be watching for in the coming days?

And should he end up being impeached? Could we possibly see changes in South Korea's leadership that would potentially have a bearing beyond its borders? We're going to get a vote pretty soon on whether South Korea's legislature wants to impeach Yoon. Now, the opposition party and their allies are a few votes short of two-thirds of the 300 seats at the National Assembly. Given how unpopular Yoon is currently and that nearly 20 lawmakers of his own ruling conservative party voted to halt this martial law, there are at least some indicators, right, that it's not just a purely partisan issue.

Now, if Yoon leaves the scene, his conservative party is at a very weak moment. There is a frontrunner with the opposition leader, Lee Jae-myeong, but it's such a tenuous spot in South Korean politics. The citizens don't really like anyone from the two major parties, but someone has to win at the end of the day. Yoon's removal from office could bring a lot of variance in the South Korea-U.S. relationship. Yoon was an avowed fan of the U.S. and President Biden. He sang American Pie at the White House.

He strengthened ties with Tokyo. He won deeper relationships with the U.S. on nuclear consultations, for instance. If you and his party are out, that opens the door to an opposition that has a much more skeptical look of how they should encounter Washington, Tokyo, and is less inclined to take a hard line with North Korea. Nat. I've been speaking with the Journal's Korea Bureau Chief, Timothy Martin in Seoul. Tim, thanks for staying up for us.

Appreciate the update as always. All right. Cheers. Coming up, more political uncertainty in France as Marine Le Pen prepares to square off with the government and we'll look behind the numbers as American students lose ground in math and science rankings compared to their global peers. That's after the break. As the world's population grows, so does the need for resources like Potash

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French lawmakers will vote later today in a pivotal no-confidence motion that threatens to plunge France into political and fiscal uncertainty. The party of far-right opposition leader Marine Le Pen holds the balance of power in France's splintered National Assembly, and she has said that she's prepared to topple the government after Prime Minister Michel Barnier pushed through a budget bill without buy-in from lawmakers. Noemi Dessert covers bill without buy-in from lawmakers. Noemi de Serp covers French politics for the Journal from Paris. Noemi de Serp, Journalist, French Journal The Prime Minister is trying to address

France's massive deficit. In recent years, France's debt has increased dramatically, in part because we've spent a lot of money trying to soften the impact first of the COVID pandemic and then of the inflation triggered by the war in Ukraine. But also Macron has implemented massive tax cuts in order to stimulate growth and reduce unemployment. And that has worked in part, but it has also dramatically increased France's deficit. And what Barney is trying to do is to address this massive deficit, which is expected to reach more than 6% of GDP. And to do that, he's increasing taxes, he's also reducing spending, and what Marine Le Pen says she wants to do is that she wants to protect the French working class purchasing power.

The standoff will test whether Le Pen has the credibility to ultimately replace decades of rule by France's political establishment, including President Emmanuel Macron, whose term ends in 2027. Macron and his allies have long argued that Le Pen lacks the knowledge to manage the Eurozone's second-largest economy, and that her rise to power would shake investor confidence. Ahead of the vote, the spread between benchmark French and German bond yields stood at a more than decade high, signaling investor unease. Results from a closely watched international exam show that American fourth and eighth

graders are slipping in math and science, wiping out years of gains and putting scores back in line with where they were in the mid-1990s. Matt Barnum covers K-12 education for the Journal. Matt Barnum The results are not entirely surprising. We know from a great deal of data that U.S. students have been struggling since a pandemic upended American education, and that even after schools returned to in-person learning, there have been different challenges that American schools have faced. Teacher turnover has gone up,

chronic absenteeism has gone up, student misbehavior has gone up. So these results mostly confirm what we already know, but they add one more extra discouraging factor, which is that US students felt even further behind other countries. According to the Trends in International Mathematics and Science study, known as TIMS, the US now scores 24th out of 45 education systems in 8th grade math and 15th out of 63

in 4th grade science. Moving ahead of the US were England in science and Poland for both subjects in fourth grade. In a journal exclusive, we report that Wells Fargo is preparing to sell its San Francisco headquarters as the bank shifts its power base to East Coast hubs New York and Charlotte, North Carolina. Once an influential hub, the San Francisco office previously housed key executives and the last of the company's corporate history museums. A Wells Fargo spokeswoman said the city remains important to the bank.

In market news, Salesforce shares have jumped in off-hours trading after the business software provider bumped up its full-year revenue outlook. The company's sales growth outpaced analysts' expectations in the third quarter, driven partly by its hotly watched AI agent system. And Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will be in the spotlight this afternoon when he's set to speak in a moderated discussion in New York. Investors will be watching for any hints on the likelihood of an interest rate cut later this month, bets around which have been rising.

And that's it for What's News for Wednesday morning. Today's show was produced by Daniel Bach and Kate Boulevant with supervising producer Christina Rocca, and I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening.