CNN panelists liken South Korea below martial legislation to U.S. below Trump

Two members of a CNN panel discussion Tuesday looked at the images of South Korea under martial law and saw America under Donald Trump.

M.J. Lee, a Korean-born CNN correspondent, said President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration is “an important thing for Americans to pay attention to, particularly given that Donald Trump is about to be president.”

According to a clip of the segment posted by the Daily Mail, he said Mr. Trump is “somebody who has said he wants to use the military to go after his own enemies.”

Punchbowl News co-founder John Bresnahan called Ms. Lee’s claims “right on point.”

Mr. Trump has “encouraged the use of force to achieve political goals,” he said. “The parallels to January 6, just the image of a democracy facing this kind of crisis, I think this is something that people are scared about or that Democrats are scared about when they think about Trump’s return.”

In four years as president, Mr. Trump never declared martial law, which replaces civilian government with military rule and suspends most civil liberties and political rights.

Mr. Yoon’s declaration was repealed in the face of street protests and parliamentary resistance within the day.