Crowds of people wrapped up against the bitter January cold clutch signs emblazoned with the slogan “Stop the Steal,” wave US flags, and don red MAGA-like hats.

Acting President Choi Sang-mok faces not only the task of steering a shaky economy and rebuilding confidence among global allies but simply staying in his job amid the worst political crisis in decades.

"Today, the alliance between the United States and Korea remains more essential than ever in shaping our shared future," said Secretary Blinken.

South Korea’s acting leader has accepted the resignation of the chief of the presidential security service, Park Jong-joon, as he faced police questioning over how his forces blocked law enforcement efforts to detain impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol last week.

It isn’t a Donald Trump rally, however, but a protest by conservative supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who could become the East Asian democracy’s first sitting president to be arrested after he plunged it into political instability last month with his botched attempt to declare martial law.

North Korea said Tuesday it successfully test-fired a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile, claiming the weapon would "reliably contain any rivals in the Pacific region."

By developing hypersonic weapons and testing them before the presidential changeover in the United States, North Korea has a significant bargaining chip to use for whenever the new Trump administration comes looking to continue their previous diplomacy with Kim Jong-un.

North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency claimed a successful test of a new type of intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile.

Any “us vs. them” dynamic can be dangerous for democracy. But when that divide centers on mutually exclusive visions of a nation, the effects are uniquely detrimental.

Thousands of rival South Korean protesters rallied in the capital Saturday, a day after a failed attempt to arrest suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol for imposing a short-lived martial law decree that led to his impeachment.