♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... woman: a successful business owner sells his company and restores his father's historic jazz club with his son. a raymond james financial advisor get to know you, your passions, and the way you bring people together. life well planned. brett: you know as someone coming out of college it can be veryerve-racking not knowing what to expect, whether you'll like your job or not, whether you'll make friends, whether you'll fit in, and here i feel like it's so welcoming and such an inclusive place to work, you just feel like you're valued. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" christian: hello, i'm christian fraser. this is "the context,."

>> i hereby declare an emergency martial law to defend the free republic of korea from the threat of north korean communist forces and to eradicate the shameless pro-north antistate forces that are depriving our people of their freedom. this measure is necessary to uphold our constitutional freedom. >> the speaker of the house was earlier saying that legally, the president must lift the martial law immediately and lled the declaration null and void. although president yoon has to lift it legally, politically it would be a huge gamble. >> every hope and expectation is that any political dispute will be resolved peacefully and in christian: martial law that came and went in south korea. president yoon said he was

defending the state from the threat of north korean communist forces, but the decision is overturned by the national assembly, and in the last half hour, the president has rescinded his order. we will bring all the reaction. also tonight, and arabian night at the palace. the emir of qatar honored by king charles. we will call in on the state banquet which is now underway. ukraine delimiters ultimatum that focus shifts to no peace without nato membership. very good evening. it's a busy night of news. we are of course following events in seoul and london where the state banquet to honor the emir just got underway. let's begin with that stand out in south korea which began with a announcement from president yoon. >> i hereby declare an emergency martial law in order to defend

the free republic of korea and the threa of north korean communist forces and to eradicate the shameless pro-north antistate forces depriving our people of their freedom and happiness. this measure is necessary to safeguard our constitutional order of freedom. christian: it would appear the u.s. was not given any advance notice of president yoon's statement. within minutes of appearing, the army announced the suspension of all parliamentary activity. protests, they said were banned, and the threat of arrest, and the medium was censored, according to martial law. but that had not stopped thousands of protesters from coming out to the streets, nor did it stop the opposition lawmakers from fighting their way into national assembly, passive soldiers and police who tried torevent any access. a helicopter landed on the roof of the parliament building. soldiers were patrolling inside but they failed to prevent a vote taking place. within two hours of president yoon's decision, 190 of the 300

mps had voted to overturn it. in south korea law, their boat takes precedent. let speak to our producer who has been following the events overnight. fast-moving situation. in the last half hour, the order rescinded by president yoon. >> that's right. president yoon has given another televised speech to the public, saying as soon as he has a quorum and can get his cinet members together, he will lift the martial law and has already pulled back the troops from the national assembly. the question is, what next? the national assembly men and women are still in the building right behind me at the national assembly. they don't know if president yoon will truly back off this easily. i think there is still a sense of disbelief that yoon would play such a high-stakes game and then back up so easily. christian: it's been half an

hour since the statement, and a sense that you get that the army is retreating to barracks? >> we have seen videos of army leaving the national assembly, we heard from the national assembly members inside, saying they saw the military and police leave the main chamberhere the vote took place. we have the word from president yoon. i think they are staying put because they are seeing a small chance that yoon would do some other type of subterfuge, protesters are here and they are not going away. you can hear the blaring speeches given by angry protesters, and you can also hear the singing, because they want to stay here until truly all the military and police have gone home. christian: where do you think this leaves politics in seoul tonight, particularly the position of the president? >> the president has been keeping mum about what next.

he just did his speech, and that was it. in terms of what the main opposition party will do, i think there is a bit of a consensus among the opposition party members that yoon must now either step down or be impeached. i think the two lawmakers inside the national assembly i spoke to said that this is a pretty universal feeling amongst the democratic party, who has nearly enough seats, they just need a few more defections from the ruling party to get this motion. i think there is a sense across the board that yoon had crossed over a line and we will see what happens next but think and move very quickly in the next few weeks. christian: presumably, given the results of the april elections, the support of the people will be with the lawmakers and not the president. jake: this president has been

very, very unpopular. his approval rating has gone below 20% in recent weeks. a lot of people, both on the right and left, have been quite dismissive of president yoon. this is partly why president yoon possibly have been pushed to this sperate move. christian: can you take us back to the moment in the night where he made this announcement? it is worth considering the perpetual threat that south korea is under from its near-nu clear armed neighbor up even when a president comes on national television and makes an address that martial law is in place, what is the first reaction of people in south korea? jake: i think there were people who were watching this announcement who were confused, may be some kind of invasion or attack, provocation from north korea may have happened, considering the wording of president yoon.

but quickly, there is a sense that north korea is not their primary occupation. we in the west see the korean peninsula mainly through the eyes of geopolitics, but south koreans, their main headlines for the past few weeks have been about domestic politics. when yoon brought up north korean threat to enact in this martial law, a lot of korean people were flabbergasted or simply didn't know what to make of it. even in his last speech, saying that he would rescind the martial law, he still repeated the claim that there is a force against him and south korea. there is a sense that there is a bit of a division, divorced reality from how yoon sees the situation and how the public sees the situation. christian: good to get your thoughts, jake. good to get your reaction on the ground. let's go to washington to speak

to our state department correspondent. flabbergasted in south korea. were they flabbergasted in the halls of the state department, tom? tom: they were. when this was breaking this morning, the sense that you got from officials when it came into the building was one of complete shock. they were caught totally off guard, nobody was expecting it. you heard them say on the record today they had no advanced warning of it. and this is coming from the leader of an absolutely key u.s. ally, absolutely core to the strategic posture of the u.s. in that region. so for something like this to have taken place with no advanced knowledge, at least with the u.s. says, is pretty extraordinary. i think they spent the hours of this morning working out exactly what was going on in seoul, trying to talk to them. it is not even clear what level they managed to get through to the south korean government here. the wording they have been using

it as they were seeking to talk. not entirely clear to me that antony blinken was able to speak to his counterparts during this crisis. end of this particular moment of it, president yoon saying that martial law will blifted. the u.s. is just wondering what on earth just happened? it is not over yet, as you were just hearing from seoul. what this does is shake a very important relationship with the united states, because this is a strategic relationship, but at the same time, the u.s. has always tried to back that up as a beacon of democracy in the region. so for this to have taken place, i think they will be really worried about how easily, just how fragile it seems south korean democracy is. christian: there is always the danger when there is instability

in south korea that one of its neighbors may try to exploit that disorder, and that has implications for u.s. security because they have significant installations in south korea. tom: these are two key allies, the u.s. has around 2850 troops stationed in korea, wide-ranging defense and security packs, mutual defense treaty, which is all defined as a bulwark of the threats that they see coming from north korea, and not just that, but regional implications. the dotted administration has continued to foster a relationship with both seoul and tokyo, acting as a bulwark against north korea and what they see as this expansionist aspiration of china. so it is incredibly important, that relationship. i think what we will have now is

much more of an examination of the tensions that this will have created, as you say, around security. it was notable, both in the state department briefing today and at the pentagon, both officials were asked whether or not there was a change to either u.s. security posture, troops posture in the region, to which they said there was not at the moment. but also whether they had assessed or seen any changes to the forces posture of the north koreans. that is an interesting question and goes to what you said. there may be the dire to try and exploit in on behalf of north korea. the americans said they had not seen, the assessment was that there was no change in that security situation. but of course, it shows you just how easily the dynamics here can be shifted. christian: tom, thank you for that. so how did it come to this?

president yoon was voted into office in may. his government has not been able to pass bills. just last month, he was forced to issue an a policy -- apology on national tv following a corruption scandal with his wife. this week, the opposition/the budget for his government which he cannot veto and then move to impeach some of the cabinet and several top prosecutors who had to investigate the first lady bully. let speak to kathleen stevens, who was the u.s. ambassador to south korea from 2008 -- thank you very much for being with us. security was under threat. it looks very much like a political row. kathleen: first of all, listening to your

correspondence, getting the breaking news here, i have a great feeling of relief that the shocking events of the last several hours have resulted at least in president yoon is saying he is going to go to his cabinet and rescind the declaration of martial law. i think it happened this quickly in some ways because i think he realized the korean public responded, you had reporting from abroad as well, that this just didn't make sense. the rationale didn't make sense. certainly, south korea faces an existential threat from north korea, has for 70 years, but there is a broad feeling in korea and the rest of the world, allies, the u.s. and elsewhere, that democracy makes it stronger. president yoon made that speech at 10:30 at night, and it just didn't make sense to anybody that that was the rationale. it's important to note that when the national assembly gathered the spontaneous session in the middle of the night to nullify

it, the leader of president yoon's own party voted to nullify. other important conservative members of his party, the mayor of seoul, announced he was against this. it just didn't hold water with people, even people who do feel that maybe some south koreans need to take the threat from north korea more seriously. it just didn't hold water. christian: are you suggesting the cuts they made to the budget, which were pretty sweeping, could, in some way, undermine national security? kathleen: no, i didn't mean to suggest that. i'm not sure that was the nature of the cuts. certainly it is true that within the national assembly, which is now dominated by the party in opposition to president yoon, the democratic party, is in power, has a large majority in the national assembly. politics in south korea, democracy, quite polarized, kind of a worldwide trend.

reaching agreement was proving difficult. but this undertone of the threat from the north, the impure elements, as someone who first went to korea 50 years ago, i have seen martial law in korea, i have seen the democratic process. this notion as if your opponents are also somehow pro-north, unfortunately, an anachronism that has not gone away. by framing it in those terms, president yoon was not able to persuade even his political supporters. christian: how much do you think this has shaken the security pact that the united states has with south korea? i don't mean in the sense that it would be there, but doesn't look more nervously now at the political situation in south korea? kathleen: i think it reminds us, all of us that you can never take your democracy, democratic institutions for granted. i certainly was shocked to see

this kind of development in south korea. i was there three weeks ago, had no sense that something like this would happen, notwithstanding the fact that clearly the polarized politics were very elegant -- evident. i think we have to wait to see how this goes. i welcome the fact that with the scissors and that president yoon has announced 30 minutes ago, that we step back from a precipice, that the cabinet will move, but what are the next steps? i think there will be a lot more attention now, if you like, domestic politics in south korea. clearly, it will go through a challenging time. it has done that before. south korea had its first democratic election, if you like, in 1987, i was therefore it. they have had peaceful transfers of power every five years since. sometimes the presidents have been impeached, but they always made it through. i think there will be a lot more attention from washington, a lot more recognition at least on the

part of the current administration, that democratic institutions are important to the alliance. that is not just nice rhetoric. it really is what makes south korea such a bastion of strength in northeast asia, such an important ally. but we cannot take it for granted there, either. it is in the interest of the united states and other countries, who enjoyed the legitimacy of korea now being recognized as a legitimate democratic leader. christian: just a quick final question. tom was setting out the statement from the state department. treading delicately between the politics, the president, lawmakers in the assembly. how much influence behind the scenes does washington have? if the decision of the assembly and the people writ large is to get rid of the president, do they have the diplomatic power to ease him out of the way given

the investment they put into the country? kathleen: a predecessor of mine wrote about u.s.-korean relations, something like a great influence, very little leverage. but that was a long time ago. i'm not even sure the united states in that sense is, or should have, a great deal of political influence on what happens in south korea. certainly, we have to follow closely what is happening there, much as we do with u.k. or any other country. i hope that we can support rule of law, common values, democracy. i think there will be more attention to that going forward given what south korea still faces as it negotiates this pretty tricky time still ahead. christian: ambassador stevens, thank you for giving us your time this evening. thank you. around the world and across the u.k., you are watching bbc news. ♪

christian: qatar heavily involved in negotiations in the middle east. that is where we will turn. there is a big event underway tonight at the palace. the emir of qatar is the guest of king charles. they spoke last night about the importance of foreign to growth in the u.k. for a country the size of coventry, qatar is a country of strategic importance. they are big gas producers, big investors in the city of london. there is acknowledgment of the important role that qatar has been playing diplomatically in the middle east. let speak to our security correspondent frank gardner who is out in london tonight, hence the lack of lighting on his face. nice for you to join us. talk about the strategic importance of qatar to the u.k. frank: qatar is a huge investor

in the economy, also a defense partner. it is a joint squadron of jets with the royal air force. it is based up in central britain. there is incredibly close relations. britain has pretty good relations with all the gulf arab states, but with qatar, it is almost a special case, because they are huge investors in things like harrods, the department store, the shard, heathrow, banks, at one point in the stock exchange. they have around $50 billion u.s. invested in the u.k. economy. of course, there is the role as you mention, as the mediators in the conflict between israel and hamas. they are the hosts of not only the largest u.s. military base in the middle east but also the hosts for the hamas political

leadership, which is very controversial. at least the military part of hamas is described as a terrorist organization. but they provide a window for western governments to deal with organizations like the taliban in afghanistan, hamas in gaza. christian: in terms of what is going on tonight, obviously, this is the diplomacy end of the two-day visit but tomorrow they get down to business in terms of investment. what sort of money does qatar have stalked away here in the city of london? frank: big. qatar sits on some of the largest gas reserves in the world. years ago in the early 1990's, to be honest, they were financially something like a backwater, didn't have a huge amount of money, but they decided to develop the north to the field which they share with iran.

iran calls it the south pass field. it is an enormous deposit, billions of cubic meters of gas underneath the shallow waters of the gulf. they have leverage that to give them a huge stake in international money markets. qatar is a big heavy weight these days. they of course hosted the world cup not long ago. it is a slightly controversial event because human rights orgazations pointed out, some of the discrepancies in the human rights approaches. the fact that laborers had died holding those buildings -- building those buildings which happens a lot in arab states. laborers from poorer countries, across mostly southeast asia, often working in terrible conditions. but qatar remains a close friend

and ally of the united kingdom. christian: there has been obviously something of a fallout in recent times, took out the money from sainsbury's because of the budget provisions that the chancellor had brought in. then there were the unfortunate comments around p&l ferries which brought an apology of sorts from the prime minister. is this dinner part of the patching up process, do you think? frank: this state visit was arranged quite some time ago. the very young ruler of qatar who inherited the title from his father, this has been arranged for quite some time. he has made eight visits to the united kingdom since becoming emir, and he has brought with him one of his wives. they are no strangers to the united kingdom. the ruler of yoon went to --qatar went to sandhurst, and

he is an anglophile, if you will. not a huge amount of relations that need to be patched up. the fact that they have this joint squadron with the royal air force base, where you have qatari pilots, they have done all the training that the raf has to do, practicing what it means to be ejected from a plane, to parachute down, captured ienemy territory, they have done all of that survival training up there in parts of the u.k. in many ways, they feel as if they share a great deal in common. the interesting thing about qatar, for a while, it was a pariah state in the middle east. saudi arabia, bahrain, the uae, and egypt essentially put it on the announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james.

announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: get the free pbs app now and stream the best of pbs.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪