South Korea’s president lifted the draconian martial law he imposed on the nation hours earlier Tuesday — after the parliament dramatically voted to reverse the order as thousands of protesters hit the streets.
Embattled President Yoon Suk Yeol said he convened his cabinet to formally lift the extraordinary measure around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday local time in Seoul.
Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images
The move was the latest in a stunningly swift, tumultuous chain of events overnight, triggered when Yoon suddenly appeared in a late-night television broadcast to announce he was instituting martial law to eradicate “shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces.”
The drastic measure came amid increasingly heated tensions between his scandal-rocked administration and the opposition-controlled parliament.
Yoon has allegedly been fuming over everything from foes’ attempts to boot top prosecutors loyal to him to their efforts to block his proposed government budget, not to mention their alleged cozying-up to the country’s mortal-enemy neighbor North Korea.
The opposition Democratic Party has in return accused him and his wife of influence-peddling and illegally going after its leader, Lee Jae-myung, considered a presidential favorite in the next election in 2027.
The party blasted Yoon’s martial-law order as “essentially a coup d’état.’’
The order sparked widespread, sometimes violent demonstrations — with soldiers and cops clashing with protesters outside the parliament’s National Assembly building in the capital.
The soldiers attempted to breach the building at one point as the parliament prepared inside to vote to knock down the order — prompting some political aides to thwart them with fire extinguishers.
There were 190 members of the 300-strong parliament present for the vote — and all of them cast ballots against the martial-law order.
“Long live the Republic of Korea!” some of the protesters outside the building shouted when word of the vote came down.
“Yoon Suk-yeol, step down!” the crowd chanted.
Martial law is the temporary suspension of many civil rights — including of the media — and the imposition of military rule and is typically called during times of war or civil unrest.
It was unclear for several hours whether Yoon — a leader of the conservative People Power Party — would follow regulation and agree to the parliament’s decision to KO his order.
But he eventually caved.
There were immediate calls from some corners for him to resign.
“President Yoon cannot avoid the charge of treason… He must step down immediately,’’ a Democratic Party leader, Park Chan-dae, wrote on X.
