| Summary/Abstract |
In this article I assess the limits and potential of South Korea’s democracy as revealed by a review of political developments related to the Cheonan incident. I argue that the incident’s aftermath shows that South Korea’s democratic principles and procedures remain vulnerable to pressures generated by national security concerns, although this vulnerability was covered to a limited degree by an open public sphere and active civil society. Korea’s political functioning in terms of republican principles and procedural democracy was seriously tested as imperatives of national security created the “state of exception.” But civil society appropriated new technologies as well as old tactics to generate “public spheres” of deliberation. I suggest that Korean democracy during the Cheonan crisis reflects the resiliency and vulnerability of the “division system” in which South Korea’s politics is embedded.
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