South Korea’s Martial Law Fiasco

Protests following the declaration

On December 3, 2024, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a state of emergency martial law in a televised broadcast to the whole country. Korea’s southern peninsula was left in a scramble as parliament rushed to vote against its implementation—all while a mass group of protesters attempted to storm the legislature’s building.

Martial Law is a state in which the military effectively takes control of the country and all civil governments cease to operate and rule over the country. It is usually used in extreme situations where there really isn't a proper government in place, in contrast to this case, where its intention was to suppress the voices of those who speak out against Yoon.

Martial law ended roughly six hours after it was implemented, as all 190 members of parliament, despite efforts to prevent them from attending the vote, unanimously voted to remove it. However, by that point, the people's trust in the government and in Yoon’s administration had been completely eradicated, as they took to the streets to protest.

President Yoon’s stated purpose was to prevent who he claims to be “pro-North Korean forces” from banding against him. His target was the leftist majority, given their constant attempts to both impeach him and change the legislation he supports. Yoon, however, has so far presented no evidence to support his claim that North Korean supporters had, in fact, infiltrated the government.

Several policymakers, among them Han Dong-Hoon, the current leader of Yoon’s People Power Party, told the military to stand down, calling martial law to be effectively useless and that the military need not listen to any orders originating directly from Yoon. A former South Korean military officer pointed out that the imposition of martial law was doomed from its beginning, as media blackouts were not put into place; the opposition also had no trouble making a lot of noise around the situation. Some describe the emergency as a poorly thought-out gamble designed to rally the right wing together to attempt a takedown of the current left-wing majority in the parliament.

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