Martial law, then a reversal: An astonishing six hours in South Korea

SEOUL - South Korea’s deeply unpopular president, Yoon Suk Yeol, stunned the nation Tuesday by declaring “emergency martial law” - a risky power play that launched an extraordinary six hours of turmoil and evoked the military dictatorships that many South Koreans believed had been consigned to the history books.

Yoon’s decree, made in a televised announcement late Tuesday night as he accused the opposition of “antistate” activities, prompted thousands of protesters demanding a return to democratic government to gather outside the National Assembly, where lawmakers convened urgently to overturn the order. With police officers forming a barricade around the parliamentary complex, some opposition lawmakers even climbed through windows to get into the voting chamber.

Before dawn Wednesday morning, Yoon said he would lift martial law in line with the parliamentary vote and withdraw troops from the streets.

He capped off his remarks with one last reference to “antistate” activities, though it came off more like an afterthought than a justification to take military control of the country.

The political roller-coaster was extreme even by the standards of South Korea, where deep polarization and combative politics often lead to dramatic power moves and countermoves.

While Yoon’s reversal was swiftly approved by his cabinet, the shock and anger that spilled onto the streets - where protesters physically stopped military vehicles and confronted soldiers forming a barricade around the National Assembly - are likely to linger.

And the move is likely to threaten Yoon’s political future because of the historical significance that a martial law declaration carries in South Korea.

“He attempted an extreme move that profoundly misread Korean political culture,” said Darcie Draudt-Véjares, an expert in South Korean politics at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The Assembly’s swift rejection, including from his own party members, has crippled his authority as leader for the vibrant democracy.”

Martial law was last imposed in South Korea in 1980, before the country transitioned from a military dictatorship into a democracy. Then, special forces violently cracked down on pro-democracy activists, mostly university students, in the city of Gwangju, killing about 200.

Yoon’s shock announcement came as his frustration mounted with the opposition-dominated Assembly, which he claimed was paralyzing the government.

He accused the main opposition Democratic Party of “antistate” activities, including through an “unprecedented” number of impeachment motions - 22 - against government officials. He said he wanted to “eradicate pro-North Korean forces,” without citing any specific threats from Pyongyang.

A decree issued at 11 p.m. Tuesday by army Gen. Park An-soo, who had been named the martial law commander, prohibited all political activities, rallies and demonstrations. It also banned acts that attempt to “overthrow the liberal democratic system” and subjected all media and publications to martial law control, although there was no sign of that in South Korea’s vibrant media outlets.

As military forces and police officers descended on the National Assembly compound in Seoul’s Yeouido district, located on an island in the river that bisects the capital, so did citizens outraged at Yoon’s announcement, who chanted, “End martial law, overthrow the dictatorship!”

“I was shocked,” said Kim Song-won, 60, who went to the National Assembly with his wife and daughter when he heard that martial law had been declared. “I thought declaring martial law was an injustice, so I came out here,” he said at 1 a.m. on a freezing Seoul night.

Surrounded by a dense crowd of protesters, he added he felt “grateful” that so many others showed up so swiftly after hearing the news.

Leaders of liberal and conservative parties swiftly criticized Yoon’s declaration, with the chairman of the president’s own conservative People Power Party calling the decision “wrong.”

A majority of lawmakers answered Speaker Woo Won-shik’s call to attend an emergency session at the National Assembly to respond to Yoon’s decision. Lawmakers struggled to get past the officers and protesters, with some resorting to climbing through windows to enter the chamber, local media reported.

Less than three hours after Yoon’s announcement, 190 of the 300 lawmakers were inside the National Assembly hall, and all 190 voted to revoke the martial law announcement.

By law, the president must comply with the parliament’s decision - and Yoon did so by 4:30 a.m. Wednesday.

President Joe Biden was briefed on the situation in South Korea, according to a senior administration official traveling with the president in Angola. “We’ve been in contact with our ROK counterparts, trying to learn more. We weren’t notified in advance, and we are seriously concerned by what we’re seeing unfold,” the official said, using the official abbreviation for South Korea.

Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said at an event at the State Department on Tuesday that Washington was watching events unfold in its ally country with “grave concern” and expressed support for South Korea.

“We stand by Korea in their time of uncertainty. I also want to just underscore that we have every hope and expectation that any political disputes will be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law,” Campbell said.

The move by Yoon raises questions about the future of his controversial presidency and his handling of the nation’s democratic system.

As military aircraft circled the National Assembly and soldiers fended off protesters, analysts and ordinary people alike asked: What will happen to South Korea’s democracy now?

“Any use of force against citizens would be a tragic step backward for a nation that has worked so hard to overcome authoritarianism,” warned Danny Russel, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute and a former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, before Yoon announced his reversal.

Yoon, who took office in 2022 with the narrowest margin in South Korea’s democratic history, has struggled to expand his political base as president and has been mired in political scandals involving his wife and other top officials in his party. In recent weeks, he has been locked in a budget fight with the Democratic Party, and his approval rating dropped to a low of 17 percent.

In his announcement Tuesday, Yoon called the Democratic-controlled National Assembly a “den of criminals” that is “attempting to paralyze” the government.

The Democratic Party had long been calling for Yoon’s impeachment but had failed to gain public support of the kind that led to the ouster of conservative President Park Geun-hye in 2016. At the time, enormous, peaceful candlelight protests went on for months until she was impeached after a corruption scandal.

Now, those calls for Yoon’s impeachment are likely to grow louder, and many in the South Korean public will view the president has having gone too far, said Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Asia Policy Studies.

“Moving forward, I just don’t know if the president has dug himself into a hole that will be difficult to come out of,” Yeo said. “This is really a domestic play, and it is a huge gamble.”

The public outcry erupted immediately after the decree. On social media, South Koreans circulated images of Yoon transposed on a portrait of Chun Doo-hwan, a vilified former strongman who seized power in a coup in 1979 and headed a brutal, military-led government until he was eventually toppled by a democratic uprising in 1987.

After Chun declared martial law, students in the southwestern city of Gwangju took to the streets to call for democracy. Their protests were violently suppressed by the South Korean military with U.S. support: Hundreds of civilians died and thousands were injured in what is now widely called the Gwangju massacre.

Yoon’s declaration of martial law was a chilling reminder of that period, Shin Bong-ki, a Kyungpook National University law school professor, told the YTN television channel.

“These martial laws and emergency orders had only existed in history books, yet they are unfolding in 2024,” Shin said. “When I heard the news, I was shaking.”

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Kelly Kasulis Cho in Seoul and Abigail Hauslohner in Angola contributed reporting.