South Korea’s President Declares Emergency Martial Law. It was a frontal assault on the integrity of South Korea’s hard-won democratic system and causing public anxiety
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has survived an impeachment attempt for sending heavily armed soldiers into Seoul’s streets with a baffling declaration of martial law that reminded many of the country’s past military-backed dictatorships.
But even after the opposition impeachment motion failed following a boycott of Saturday’s vote by most lawmakers from Yoon’s party, the president remains in a precarious position. The vote’s defeat is likely to fuel nationwide protests and escalate political turmoil, and opposition parties could introduce a new impeachment motion when parliament reconvenes next Wednesday.
Yoon appeared on TV hours ahead of the parliamentary vote Saturday and apologized for causing public anxiety with his short-lived attempt to impose martial law. The head of Yoon’s governing party, who brands himself as a reformist, had expressed support for suspending the president’s powers. But it appears he ultimately failed to win over the larger number of Yoon loyalists in the party.
The opposition has labeled Yoon’s short-lived martial law declaration an “unconstitutional, illegal rebellion or coup.” But with 192 seats in the 300-member National Assembly, they need support from some members of the president’s conservative People Power Party to get the two-thirds majority required to pass the impeachment motion.
It had seemed that the chances of Yoon’s impeachment improved after PPP leader Han Dong-hun called on Friday for an immediate suspension of Yoon’s official duties. Han said he had received intelligence that Yoon had ordered the country’s defense counterintelligence commander to arrest key politicians on accusations of “anti-state activities” during the brief period of martial law.
Yoon also faces rising popular pressure to step down. Thousands of protesters have been marching in the streets of Seoul calling for Yoon’s ouster. Autoworkers and other members of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union, one of the country’s biggest umbrella labor groups, have started hourly strikes.
If Yoon is eventually impeached, he would be suspended until the Constitutional Court decides whether to remove him from office. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who holds the No. 2 position in the government, would take over presidential responsibilities.
The Constitutional Court currently has three vacancies due to retirements, and six votes are required to remove the president from office. The Democratic Party is expected to speed up the process of exercising its right to recommend two of the three new justices.
South Korea’s constitution gives the president the power to use the military to keep order in “wartime, war-like situations or other comparable national emergency states.” Imposing martial law can include things like suspending civil rights such as the freedom of the press and assembly and temporarily limiting the powers of the courts and government agencies.
The constitution also gives the National Assembly the power to lift the declaration with a majority vote. Lawmakers rushed to the building as soon as they heard of Yoon’s declaration late Tuesday. Some climbed the walls to evade the military cordon so they could assemble a quorum. Their vote to lift the order was 190-0 including 18 members of Yoon’s party.
The impeachment motion alleges Yoon imposed martial law far beyond his legitimate powers and in a situation that did not meet the constitutional standard of a severe crisis. The constitution also doesn’t allow a president to use the military to suspend parliament. The motion argues that suspending political party activities and deploying troops to seal the National Assembly amounted to rebellion.
In Yoon’s announcement late Tuesday, he vowed to eliminate “anti-state” forces he said were plotting rebellion and accused the main opposition parties of supporting the country’s rival, North Korea. He gave no direct evidence when he raised the specter of North Korea as a destabilizing force. Yoon has long maintained that a hard line against North Korea is the only way to stop it from following through on its nuclear threats against South Korea.
There were quick claims that the martial law declaration was linked to Yoon’s political struggles. He has had little success in getting his policies adopted by a parliament that has been controlled by the opposition since he took over in 2022. Conservatives have said the opposition moves are political revenge for investigations into Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, who is seen as the favorite in the next presidential election in 2027.
Just this month, Yoon denied wrongdoing in an influence-peddling scandal involving him and his wife. The claims have battered his approval ratings and fueled attacks by his rivals. The scandal centers on claims that Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee exerted inappropriate influence on the PPP to pick a certain candidate to run for a parliamentary by-election in 2022 at the request of Myung Tae-kyun, an election broker and founder of a polling agency who conducted free opinion surveys for Yoon before he became president.
During the dictatorships that emerged as South Korea rebuilt from the 1950-53 Korean War, leaders occasionally proclaimed martial law that allowed them to station soldiers, tanks and armored vehicles on streets or in public places to prevent anti-government demonstrations.
Army Gen. Park Chung-hee led several thousand troops into Seoul in the early hours of May 16, 1961, in the country’s first coup. He led South Korea for nearly 20 years and proclaimed martial law several times to stop protests and jail critics before he was assassinated by his spy chief in 1979.
Less than two months after Park’s death, Maj. Gen. Chun Doo-hwan led tanks and troops into Seoul in December 1979 in the country’s second coup. The next year, he orchestrated a brutal military crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising in the southern city of Gwangju, killing at least 200 people.
In the summer of 1987, massive street protests forced Chun’s government to accept direct presidential elections. His army buddy Roh Tae-woo, who had joined Chun’s 1979 coup, won the election held later in 1987 largely because of divided votes among liberal opposition candidates.
