Just hours after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, he was forced by the country’s lawmakers to sensationally backflip on the move. Here’s what the political crisis means and what happens next.
What happened in South Korea overnight?
In an announcement broadcast on live television on Tuesday night, Yoon declared martial law for the first time in South Korea since 1980, vowing to eradicate “shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces”. He added that he had no choice but to take the measure to safeguard constitutional order.
The decision triggered immediate chaos and upheaval in the South Korean capital, Seoul. Thousands of protesters rallied outside the National Assembly building as troops descended on parliament to enforce the edict.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Tuesday night.Credit: AP
Images from Seoul showed violent clashes between troops and protesters, including one video broadcast by a local media outlet, OhmyTV, which showed a woman grabbing a soldier’s gun and trying to take it from him before being pushed aside. In another video that has since gone viral, the leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, Lee Jae-myung, filmed himself climbing the fence of the parliament compound in a desperate rush to lead a vote overturning the martial law declaration.
Despite authorities’ efforts to block their access, members of parliament were able to enter the National Assembly building, where all 190 of the 300 elected politicians in attendance voted to scrap the declaration just hours after it was announced. Under South Korean law, Yoon was required to honour the vote and lift the declaration when his national cabinet convened.
About 4.30am local time (6.30am AEDT) the cabinet passed a motion to have the declaration scrapped.
“I declared emergency martial law at 11pm last night as an act of national resolve against the anti-state forces that are trying to paralyse the essential functions of the state and disrupt the constitutional order of our liberal democracy,” The New York Times reported Yoon as saying earlier on Wednesday morning.
“However, a short time ago, the National Assembly demanded that martial law be lifted, so I withdrew the military forces that had been deployed to carry out martial law. I will lift martial law as soon as we have a quorum in the cabinet. It’s early in the morning, so we don’t have a quorum yet.
“But I call on the National Assembly to immediately stop the outrageous behaviour that is paralysing the functioning of the country with impeachments, legislative manipulation and budget manipulation.”
Protesters call for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment.Credit: Bloomberg
What happens now?
The fallout of Yoon’s declaration has continued on Wednesday morning, with calls from South Korea’s opposition for the president to resign or be impeached.
Democratic Party of Korea MP Park Chan Dae said in a statement that even though martial law was lifted, the president “cannot avoid treason charges”.
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“It was clearly revealed to the entire nation that President Yoon could no longer run the country normally. He should step down.”
Yoon can be impeached if two-thirds of the lawmakers in the National Assembly vote in favour of the move. Thousands of people have attended rallies in recent months, calling for his impeachment and accusing him of incompetence, corruption and abuse of power, The New York Times reports.
The chaos that descended on the National Assembly building on Tuesday night has largely calmed, but some protesters have returned to parliament demanding Yoon be removed from power. Barricades erected to block entry into the National Assembly building were removed on Wednesday morning.
“Arrest Yoon Suk Yeol,” protesters could be heard chanting in a video published by The New York Times.