WASHINGTON -- South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's sudden declaration of martial law on Tuesday caught U.S. officials off guard and left them scrambling to assess the implications for the U.S.-Japan-South Korea trilateral relationship -- one of the hallmarks of the Biden administration.
"We were not consulted in any way. We learned about this from the announcement on television the same way the rest of the world did," National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told a seminar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, on Wednesday. He said the dramatic announcement "raised alarm bells" in Washington.
