Lawmakers and members of the South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party (DP) demonstrate against the country’s president at the National Assembly on Wednesday in Seoul, South Korea.
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SEOUL, South Korea — Calls are growing for South Korea’s president to resign or face impeachment, after he briefly imposed martial law over the country.
Opposition parties filed a motion on Wednesday to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol, signed by every one of their lawmakers.
Civic groups in most major cities are planning to hold large-scale rallies urging Yoon’s ouster.
President Yoon lifted emergency martial law at 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday, just six hours after he declared it in a surprise televised address.
In the speech, he accused the opposition-controlled parliament of “paralyzing” and “attempting to overthrow the liberal democratic system through legislative dictatorship.” Yoon said that by imposing martial law, his aim was “to crush North Korea-sympathizing anti-state forces and to preserve the free constitutional order.”
A martial-law command soon issued a decree suspending the legislature, blocking all political activities and putting the media under its control. The command threatened violators will be arrested without warrant.
Leaders of the ruling conservative People Power Party and the main liberal opposition Democratic Party both immediately decried Yoon’s action as unconstitutional and illegal.
Two and a half hours after the announcement, 190 lawmakers gathered at the National Assembly amid armed soldiers swarming onto the legislature’s premises. The lawmakers, including 18 from Yoon’s party, annulled martial law in a unanimous vote.
The U.S. Embassy in South Korea issued an alert, advising U.S. citizens to stay away from protests or other large gatherings, which could escalate into violence. The U.K. also made a similar travel advisory.
“I felt like I was Alice in Wonderland”
It was the first time martial law was imposed in South Korea since the 1980s. But in the early decades of the country’s modern history, dictators and military juntas enforced martial law to squash political rivals and pro-democracy movements, often citing unsubstantiated threats from North Korea as the reason.
“And the South Korean people, they know their history as well,” says Benjamin Engel, a political science professor at Dankook University outside Seoul. “And they’re not going to accept a return of military rule or martial law. And that was clear from the get-go.”
Over the chaotic and historic night, a growing crowd of protesters gathered outside the main gate of the parliament. Inside the compound, protesters and parliament staffers tried to block soldiers from entering the main meeting hall. Some built barricades with furniture.
The National Assembly’s Secretary General Kim Min-ki said in a briefing that nearly 300 martial law troops stormed the parliament, flying in military helicopters or climbing over fences. Some smashed windows to enter the main building, he said. Kim announced that members of the defense ministry and the police will now be prohibited from entering the parliament, to protect the institution’s functions and lawmakers’ safety.
Extra edition newspapers are displayed at a subway gate in downtown Seoul on December 4, 2024, after martial law was lifted.
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In recent years, the main opposition Democratic Party has warned against the possibility that a conservative government can declare martial law to defuse a political crisis. Under President Park Geun-hye, daughter of the dictator Park Chung Hee, the military prepared a detailed plan for martial law amid nationwide protests over her corruption allegations that eventually led to her impeachment in 2017.
DP’s leader Lee Jae-myung openly raised a suspicion as recently as in September. Yoon’s office brushed it off as “irresponsible” and “brainwashing propaganda.”
Nevertheless, after his suspicion became a reality, Lee expressed disbelief. “I felt like I was Alice in Wonderland, like I was in some cartoon,” Lee said at a rally Wednesday afternoon. “This country – the 10th biggest economy in the world, a cultural powerhouse and an aspiring 5th biggest military power – was backpedaling to an outdated country.”
Lee said the Yoon administration resorted to physical force, cornered by a looming economic, security and political crisis.
Intentions of martial-law declaration unclear
Yoon Suk Yeol is a former chief prosecutor who won the presidency as a political rookie in 2022 with a paper-thin margin.
He has struggled throughout his term with scandals involving him and his wife. His approval rating has dropped to 20% or below in recent weeks as allegations of Yoon and his wife Kim Keon-hee’s involvement in an influence-peddling scandal emerged.
The DP has been pressuring Yoon over first lady Kim’s acceptance of a luxury bag, alleged stock price manipulation, involvement in state affairs and other allegations. The opposition has also questioned Yoon’s role in the alleged cover-up of a Marine’s death last year and in the controversial relocation of the presidential office and residence.
Yoon has mostly denied or dismissed these accusations as political attacks and antagonized the opposition-led parliament, frequently blocking bills with veto power.
Earlier this week, his government again clashed with the parliament, as the DP slashed large portions of Yoon’s budget proposal for the next year.
It remains unclear what President Yoon expected to achieve with the martial law declaration.
Dankook University’s Benjamin Engel says, “There’s no other real way to look at it except for a self-coup trying to extend his power” and “push through policies without any sort of negotiations or compromise with the opposition party.”
Protesters demonstrate against the country’s president on December 04, 2024 in Seoul, South Korea.
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President Yoon’s future and legacy in doubt
The future of Yoon and his government appears grim. Yoon’s senior aides and defense minister offered to resign. The DP is accusing the president, the defense minister and the interior minister for charges of insurrection.
The Korean Won and stock prices experienced large fluctuations amid uncertainties. Diplomatic and military schedules are being delayed, including a scheduled visit by the Swedish prime minister and a key nuclear deterrence meeting and exercise with the U.S.
In a post on X Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. embassy in Seoul said, “the U.S. believes President Yoon’s announcement to end martial law is a crucial step.” The message stopped short of condemning martial law declaration.
The White House said it’s relieved. But the politics professor Engel says Yoon’s disruption of democratic system “throws egg on the face of their whole trilateral cooperation efforts with the U.S., South Korea and Japan.”
Yoon has envisioned South Korea as a “global pivotal state” that promotes liberal democratic order and pursued “value-based diplomacy” with like-minded democracies.
“Yoon’s legacy is gone,” says Engel.
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