Mass Protests Force South Korean President To Revoke Shocking Martial Law Declaration After 6 Hours
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol faces impeachment after opposition parties in the country’s National Assembly introduced a motion to force him from office for his shocking declaration of martial law. The conservative Yoon made his announcement in a televised briefing Tuesday evening, accusing the liberal opposition of undermining the state and possibly colluding with North Korea. Thousands of Koreans massed at the parliament to oppose the move as lawmakers rushed inside to vote unanimously to overturn Yoon’s declaration, which he rescinded just hours later. Yoon’s ouster is now all but certain, either through impeachment or his resignation, and he also faces possible treason charges.
“We would never imagine — some of us, the younger ones — that we would have martial law called during our lifetimes,” says organizer Dae-Han Song from Seoul. He describes how “a lot of ordinary people came out” to oppose the power grab.
We also speak with longtime peace activist Christine Ahn, recently banned from entering South Korea by Yoon’s government. She says the “living memory” of life under dictatorship, which lasted into the 1980s, clearly inspired many ordinary citizens to fight back. “They will not tolerate that,” says Ahn. “It’s an extraordinary example of what Americans must learn from South Korea.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Members of South Korea’s opposition have moved to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol after he plunged South Korea into crisis by declaring martial law in a surprise late-night broadcast on Tuesday.
PRESIDENT YOON SUK YEOL: [translated] I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean, anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free constitutional order.
AMY GOODMAN: Minutes later, the leader of the opposition called on supporters and members of the opposition to gather at the National Assembly. Nearly 300 troops stormed the National Assembly as lawmakers gathered inside to vote down the martial law order and declare it invalid. It passed unanimously. This is Representative Kim Min-seok, a senior member of the Democratic Party of Korea.
REP. KIM MIN-SEOK: On December 3rd, 2024, at 10:27 p.m., President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law. This declaration is illegal and constitutes a criminal act, directly violating the Constitution and other laws. It is essentially a coup d’état.
AMY GOODMAN: As details emerged that the order would ban all political activities, protests and labor strikes, several close aides to the president resigned, and his own party urged him to repeal his declaration. The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions announced an indefinite general strike, called on the president to resign. Meanwhile, thousands of people gathered outside the National Assembly protesting the president’s order.
Amidst widespread and growing opposition, President Yoon backed down and revoked his order six hours later.
PRESIDENT YOON SUK YEOL: [translated] After the National Assembly’s demand to lift martial law, martial law troops have been withdrawn. I will accept the National Assembly’s demand and lift martial law through a Cabinet meeting.
AMY GOODMAN: For more on these dramatic developments, we’re joined by two guests. Christine Ahn is international coordinator of the campaign Korea Peace Now! She’s also founder and executive director of Women Cross DMZ, a global movement of women mobilizing to end the Korean War. She’s joining us from Honolulu, Hawaii. And from Seoul, South Korea, we’re joined by organizer Dae-Han Song. He is head of the networking team of the International Strategy Center. He’s part of the No Cold War collective.
We’re going to begin with you, Dae-Han Song. You’re there in Seoul. Can you explain what happened near midnight on Tuesday night?
DAE-HAN SONG: Sure. Around 10:30 p.m., basically, we started — like, I was at a funeral myself and with various organizers and activists. And at 10:30 p.m., I just saw that there was just a lot of social media that, in effect, was saying that martial law had been called. And, of course, all of us at the beginning were completely incredulous. Like, we would never imagine — some of us, the younger ones — that we would have martial law called during our lifetimes.
And, yes, and afterwards, a lot of the people went to the National Assembly themselves. So, a lot of them went home, and after going home, they went directly to the National Assembly to gather and to protect the National Assembly from the military troops that were being dispatched. So, martial law was called at 10:30 p.m., and, basically, between 11:00 and 12:00, thousands of people had gathered in front of the National Assembly.
I myself was not there, but I was in constant communication with people, and I was just doing a lot of the writing, a lot of the social media to just be able to provide support in the social media and to let people know what was happening.
And I think what’s extraordinary is that a lot of ordinary people came out. I think I’ve heard that people were saying that there were delivery people that just stopped working. And when they heard the news, they just like rushed to the National Assembly. There were people that were at home just relaxing, and then they rushed.
And a lot of the people, when they gathered, they were able to block and prevent the armored trucks from entering the grounds of the National Assembly. They were able — a lot of them were chanting to abolish the martial law and to — and, yeah, basically, abolish martial law and to — down with the dictatorship.
And a lot of this was happening while the voting, while the deliberation was happening inside the National Assembly. And so, yeah, in many regards, I think the National Assembly members, the 190 that showed up, were the ones that revoked the martial law, but, of course, it was a lot of the energy and a lot of the effort and a lot of the presence of people that had rushed to the National Assembly that really made a huge difference in turning this thing around.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Dae-Han Song, was there any indication beforehand that this was about to occur? I know that the president was having trouble passing a budget because the Legislature is controlled by — the National Assembly is controlled by the opposition party. But was there any indication beforehand that he was about to do this?
DAE-HAN SONG: No. I mean, I think, like, nobody knew. I think even his Cabinet — or, apparently, a lot of his Cabinet did not know what was going to happen, that he was going to declare martial law. I think, in many regards, if one, I guess, were to kind of like understand what was going on through Yoon’s mind, I think perhaps the things that would shed a little bit of a light into, like, what is his motivation, why is he doing this at this time, does have to do with not being able to pass the national budget that he desired. The Democratic Party, that has, like, nearly — that has, basically, a majority in the National Assembly, they were cutting a lot of his discretionary spending or discretionary budget for the prosecutor’s office, for the presidential office, for the audit office. And basically, they were planning on pushing this through on December 10th. And, of course, they would be able to do this because they had the majority of seats.
I mean, other things that have been kind of constantly in the news is, basically, just the first lady, accusations of bribery and stock manipulation. There were very different developments that were happening that would have revealed a lot of the details of his wife’s bribery and stock manipulation. And also, it’s important to note that Yoon’s support ratings are very low. They’re at 19%. And basically, his low support ratings are also dragging down his own political party. So, his own conservative political party is feeling the pressure to also do something about the different allegations of corruption and stock manipulation that are surrounding the first lady. And so, I think there was also this belief that — on the part of Yoon, that eventually the conservative party would also join together with the Democratic Party and basically overturn or veto. Like, Yoon has been — Yoon has done a record number of vetos, 24. And basically, a lot of these vetos are against laws that are trying to create a special investigation on his wife. And basically, because — yes?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, no, I’d like to just bring in Christine Ahn to the conversation, international coordinator of the campaign Korea Peace Now! Christine, welcome to Democracy Now! I wanted to ask you if you could talk a little bit about who President Yoon is, especially his relationship to the U.S. government. And also, this is not the first time Korea has — South Korea has faced martial law. I’m wondering if you could remind our viewers and listeners about the martial law back in 1980 that led to the famous Gwangju Uprising and the massacre of hundreds, possibly thousands, of South Koreans.
CHRISTINE AHN: Yes. Thanks, Juan. President Yoon Suk Yeol is a former prosecutor. He actually rose in prominence by investigating the former right-wing conservative president, Park Geun-hye, who was ultimately impeached because of a very similar situation, where hundreds of thousands — millions, actually, of South Koreans took to the streets in 2016 and 2017 to demand that she be impeached. And so, he played a role in convicting, and, ultimately, she spent time in prison. So, that’s his background.
He has come into power. He was narrowly elected. I think it was a 0.8%, by less than a percent, in May 2022. And since he entered office, he has just been embroiled in scandal after scandal, a lot of it affiliated with his wife, but just gross negligence and incompetence in his ability to govern. So, I think that that has been very much undergirding South Koreans’ outrage over this president. He has also, you know, led South Korea in really historic democratic backsliding, going after journalists. He’s gutted the Ministry of Gender Equality, targeted labor. The list just goes on and on. I mean, even doctors and medical students have been on strike for over half the year, and because of dramatic cuts in the medical — the health system in South Korea, which is famously known around the world. So, because of his gross negligence and incompetence, I think that is what fomented so much of the frustration and anger.
But going back to the last declaration of martial law, by Chun Doo-hwan, it actually — and which was actually backed and known by the U.S. Carter at the time had sent paramilitary troops — not American, but South Korean — from the DMZ to go and quash the uprising as citizens and students and farmers and workers rose up in protest of martial law and the dictatorship. And I think that experience, even though it was 44 years ago, it’s still very much in the minds of the Korean people.
And so, when they heard that martial law was declared, my friend Youkyoung Ko, who is a seasoned antiwar activist in South Korea, said that, you know, here SMS was blowing up, that just people were saying, “We have to go. We have to take to the streets. We have to protest. We cannot allow a return,” because of the horrific experience that South Koreans endured under dictatorship, the beatings, the torture. I mean, Kap Seol, a Korean American journalist that many of your listeners probably read his work on Jacobin, you know, he is still suffering a twitch in his neck because he was beaten by a club and his skull was almost fractured. So, that kind of still the memory, the living memory, the emotional, the psychological trauma of that period, South Koreans just will not stand that. They will not tolerate that.
And so, I think, in many ways, what we witnessed in the last day, in the 24-hour period, is extraordinary. It’s an extraordinary example of what Americans must learn from South Korea about how people, ordinary people — it’s not governments or the military that will secure our democracy. It will be people and people power. And I think we have to take the lessons and learn from Dae-Han and other South Koreans that have been organizing under an authoritarian-leaning government for the last several years, as we prepare in 2025.
And I just have to add, I mean, what we witnessed in that six-hour period of a strongman declaring martial law and the reaction by the people and the other elected officials, including members of his own party, going and protesting and vetoing that martial law order — imagine what would have happened on January 6 if the American people actually went, as the MAGA people were rioting and raiding our halls of Congress, and if members of Congress and the people actually showed up and refuted and condemned this action, what difference that would have made and the difference that 2025 would be for this country and for the world.
AMY GOODMAN: Christine, we only have a minute. You’re director of Women Cross the DMZ. You’re international coordinator of Korea Peace Now! And just a few weeks ago, you were banned from entering South Korea. If you can explain what happened and also the president’s reason for martial law when he said he wants to “protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces” and that “the despicable pro-North Korean, anti-state forces … are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people”? Explain what that means.
CHRISTINE AHN: Thanks, Amy. Yeah, three weeks ago, I was about to board a plane here in Honolulu to Incheon to deliver a keynote speech at an international youth peace summit. It was actually hosted by the Gyeonggi province, the government that borders the DMZ. And I was told that I could not board the plane.
And, you know, sadly, this was not my first rodeo. In 2017, I was similarly trying to board a plane to go to Korea and was informed that I had been placed on the blacklist that 10,000 South Koreans had been put on by the former right-wing president, Park Geun-hye. But, fortunately, at that time, Moon Jae-in had just been elected, after the Candlelight Revolution, and so I was able to — they transformed it in 72 hours, and I was able to enter the country.
Now, the kind of the allegation or the justification that Yoon uses is just such — it’s, frankly, just pathetic. And I’m just so glad that South Koreans have evolved, and they — it’s just a — it’s a McCarthyist playbook to, you know, use the threat of a North Korean invasion to justify quashing dissent, any kind of dissent. This is a tried and true trope that right-wing leaders have used. And unfortunately, who it hurts the most is South Korean democracy. And —
AMY GOODMAN: Christine, we’re going to have to leave — we’re going to have to leave it there, but we’re going to continue to follow what develops as the people of South Korea call for the ouster or impeachment of the Korean president, who declared martial law for six hours yesterday. Christine Ahn, international coordinator of the campaign Korea Peace Now!, also founder and executive director of Women Cross DMZ. I also want to thank our guest Dae-Han Song, head of the networking team of the International Strategy Center, part of the No Cold War collective, speaking to us from Seoul.
Dae-Han Song is head of the networking team of the International Strategy Center, part of the No Cold War collective.
Christine Ahn is international coordinator of Korea Peace Now!, founder and executive director of Women Cross DMZ.
Democracy Now! produces a daily, global, independent news hour hosted by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Juan González. Our reporting includes breaking daily news headlines and in-depth interviews with people on the front lines of the world’s most pressing issues. On Democracy Now!, you’ll hear a diversity of voices speaking for themselves, providing a unique and sometimes provocative perspective on global events.