US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday spoke to his South Korean counterpart Cho Tae-yul, welcomed the lifting of martial law and said he expected the democratic process to prevail in the country, according to a State Department readout.
"The Secretary conveyed his confidence in the democratic resilience of the ROK during this period," spokesperson Matthew Miller said in the statement, using the initials of the country's official name, the Republic of Korea.
This came as South Korea's ruling party leader Han Dong-hoon said that President Yoon Suk Yeol had ordered the arrest of prominent politicians over grounds that they were "anti-state forces" during the martial law Yoon declared earlier this week.