Protesters, mostly Korean nationals living in the United States, hold signs calling for President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment in downtown Seattle, Saturday. Dozens of rallies are planned across the U.S. this week. Courtesy of Seattle Evergreen Coalition

SEATTLE — It's been a week since Korea's shocking martial law fiasco began, but Jae Kim still can't sleep through the night. The 20-year-old college student spends sleepless nights scouring all major Korean news outlets, online forums and YouTube channels for every update following the aftermath of the botched martial law gambit back home.

"How can I sleep when my mother country has been thrown into this sudden chaos?" she said. "Still can't believe history book stuff is happening in 2024."

President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law stunt on Dec. 3 has plunged the country into political chaos, triggering a massive public backlash and protests, a failed impeachment vote and a first-ever travel ban on a sitting president, among other quickly unraveling series of events.

Koreans in the United States are teaming up online and offline to keep up with the latest updates and seek ways to mobilize support.

More than 250 people, including Kim, donated $14,395 (approximately 20 million won) within two short hours to sponsor fish cake and coffee trucks for protesters at the upcoming Yeouido rally on Saturday.

"I want to teleport myself to Korea," she said, "to stand right in front of the National Assembly and brave the cold with other protesters. But for now, buying them a warm cup of coffee is all I can do."

The donation campaign on GoFundMe, a popular crowdfunding platform, went viral and reached the donation target, so that the organizer, an anonymous housewife based in California, ended the fundraiser early.

"With K-pop, K-dramas and K-food being super popular here, we've taken so much pride in being Koreans overseas and living in the limelight," she said. "That is, until Yoon's martial law declaration. Our neighbors, our sisters and our moms are out in the cold day after day, fighting for democracy. This is only a small gesture to support them."

With the latest donation campaign closing early, many other Koreans across the U.S. are calling for more ways to extend support monetarily.

"We're physically away from home, but we want to make tangible contributions," said Myong-ok Kim, 53, a New Jersey resident. "The U.S. dollar is strong now, so our money can go a longer way."

Providing hand warmers and snacks for rally participants at upcoming events and sponsoring ads in mainstream U.S. newspapers are among the campaigns being discussed, according to MissyUSA, a popular online community for Korean women in the U.S.

Protesters, mostly Koreans living in the United States, hold signs calling for President Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment in downtown Seattle, Saturday. Dozens of rallies are planned across the U.S. this week. Courtesy of Seattle Evergreen Coalition

Hundreds are gathering to hold rallies, from California to New York.

In Seattle, a large crowd came together in the city center last weekend to call for Yoon's impeachment.

"Some people confused me as North Korean when I posted about the martial law order on Instagram," one college student said at the rally. "I want to be able to proudly say that I'm from South Korea."

Another college student added, "We're in the middle of final exams now, but that isn't stopping us from dropping everything and coming out here. We can't let our home country crumble."

Dozens of rallies organized by Korean groups of all sizes are scheduled to take place in major U.S. cities like Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle and Washington throughout this week.

"We are surprised and thrilled to see so many younger generations come out to voice their support," said Sung Park, a member of Seattle Evergreen Coalition, a local Korean nonprofit and rally organizer. "We prepared 70-90s music last weekend, but we're going to have some latest K-pop hits ready for the upcoming event."

Touted as vibrant and youthful, Korea's rally scenes showing customized K-pop light sticks and synchronized chants have gone viral overseas.

"We will continue to huddle up," Park said. "This is only the beginning."

Jane Han writes as a freelance correspondent for The Korea Times.