How the South Korean president's power play became a global crisis

Published Dec 4, 2024, 3:43 AM

Last night, in a shock televised announcement, South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol declared emergency martial law. 

It sent some South Koreans running to their homes, to be with their families. Unsure of what this move would mean. While many others fled to the National Assembly, in protest, even as police and the military surrounded the country’s parliament.

In a bonus episode today, North Asia correspondent Lisa Visentin, on how this bizarre situation unfolded and why such an extreme measure was deployed by the president.

Audio thanks to:

From the newsrooms of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. This is the morning edition. I'm Samantha Cylinder Morris. It's Wednesday, December 4th. Last night, in a shock televised announcement, South Korean President Yoon Suk yeol declared emergency martial law.

I am declaring martial law to protect a free South Korea from the North Korean communist forces. Eliminate. Shameless.

It sent some South Koreans running to their homes to be with their families, unsure of what this move would mean, while many others fled to the National Assembly in protest even as police and the military surrounded the country's parliament.

Clashes broke out as police tried to hold them back.

And people are chanting, you know, bring down the dictatorship, stop the martial law and arrest President Yoon.

Today, North Asia correspondent Lisa Visentin on how this bizarre situation unfolded and why such an extreme measure was deployed by the president. Okay, so Lisa, what on earth happened in South Korea last night?

Okay, so in a sort of shock late night development, the president of South Korea, President Yun, declared martial law.

Through this martial law. I will rebuild and protect the free Republic of Korea, which is falling into the depths of national ruin.

He basically said that North Korean forces were setting out to sort of ruin democracy in South Korea and, and made this extraordinary declaration that took the country by surprise. And as a result of that, there was sort of an immediate activation of South Korean troops. And there was extraordinary footage of South Korean soldiers descending Upon the South Korean parliament known as the National Assembly.

Soldiers and police blocked the entrance to South Korea's parliament following the orders of a desperate president.

You can hear probably behind me, the chanting and people are chanting, you know, bring down the dictatorship, stop the martial law and arrest President Yoon. This thing was a complete, stunning moment. I think the general mood here is one of incredulity.

And so this martial law declaration. This actually only lasted for hours, right? Because the opposition party, which actually holds the majority in parliament, they were able to to gather enough support to reject it. Is that right?

Yes. So the opposition known as the Democratic Party, they control the numbers in the parliament. They convened an emergency session of their parliament and voted to reject the president's declaration of martial law.

Meanwhile, members of the country's National Assembly battled their own military to take back their elected seats, getting there in whatever way they could.

They have repeatedly used their strength in the Parliament to frustrate the president's agenda. Most recently, they used it to scale back his forthcoming budget. They've used it to try and impeach members of the government, and they mobilized pretty quickly in response to this decree, essentially by the president on Tuesday night to try and impose martial law.

And so, as you touched on a bit before, President Yoon has said that him declaring martial law. This was actually a response to a communist threat and the opposition's desire to overthrow free democracy. But is this actually the reason why he did this? Right.

So I think the president has quite a long history of labeling his political opponents as pro-north Korean sympathizers. And that's who he was targeting with this declaration of martial law. Not exactly some external threat from North Korea, per se. And certainly the president hasn't been able to point to a particular threat from North Korea. So I think there's very much aimed at his political opponents. They do have a majority in the parliament, and he has made a huge call overnight in trying to seemingly break this political deadlock that he faces by imposing martial law, effectively banning political parties, bringing the media under control of martial law as well. And look, almost immediately, you can see South Korean civil society and the auspices of the parliament just absolutely ignoring or ignoring this call and proceeding to use the auspices of government and Parliament to actually reject it.

And so you've mentioned that this, you know, very late night announcement to declare martial law, it really did come as a shock. So let's just talk a bit about why. Because most people would have an impression that South Korea, you know, it's this democratic counter to North Korea. Right. But this kind of suggests otherwise. You know, if the president is using his power to implement martial law, to if the observers have it right, further, a political agenda, this really puts a different sort of shade, I guess, on what's happening in South Korea, right?

Well, in some respects, yes, and in some respects, no. I mean, it really did seem like President Yoon was sort of tapping into, uh, a past that many South Koreans would hope was very much confined to the past. Martial law has been imposed 16 times in South Korea since World War II, but never once since it transitioned to a parliamentary democracy in 1987. So it was almost a throwback to this past decade's sort of sort of military dictatorship. But I think the reaction of the parliament, the reaction of the opposition members and the fact that the president himself wants the parliament and wants the opposition moved to immediately convene this emergency session and reject the martial law call. The president almost realized that I think that he's overstepped and agreed to withdraw martial law himself once he was able to convene his cabinet. So I think this is something that has left the president extremely isolated. And there's a huge question mark over how on earth he continues to govern after this.

I mean, what do you think the impact will be on June's presidency? You know, after what you've just called, you know, really quite an overstep.

Look, I think it's still very much a live situation there, but it would be hard to imagine how he, um, manages to restore a sense of normalcy after he's thrown his country into chaos with with such a surprise and unexpected call. And, like I said, a throwback to South Korea's past. You would have to imagine that his future is imperiled. And you've seen also key members of his party call what he's done unconstitutional that he has called for martial law in a way that is unlawful and out of step with with the country's own constitution. So it's very hard to imagine how he will cling on in those sorts of circumstances.

And so do you think even further beyond, you know, what will happen to his presidency? Do you think this might actually impact the country's democracy more widely?

Look, I think it's really too early to say, but I think a lot of experts will will point to the fact that democratic institutions have worked here, that you have seen a strong revolt at a groundswell level of of regular sort of everyday Koreans saying, this is not what we're about. You did see protesters descend on the National Assembly. And so I think those are healthy signs that when a leader sort of oversteps their powers and tries to do something like this, that there has been a degree of pushback that has stopped that in its tracks.

Well, thank you so much, Lisa, for your time.

Thank you.

Today's episode of The Morning Edition was produced by Tammy Mills, with technical assistance by Taylor Dent. The Morning Edition is a production of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. If you enjoy the show and want more of our journalism, subscribe to our newspapers today. It's the best way to support what we do. Search The age or Smh.com.au forward slash. Subscribe and sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter to receive a comprehensive summary of the day's most important news, analysis and insights in your inbox every day. Links are in the show. Notes. I'm Samantha Salinger Morris. This is the morning edition. Thanks for listening.