S.Korea: Citizens outside Nat’l Assembly applaud as bill to lift martial law passes
Seoul: Citizens gathering outside the National Assembly erupted in applause and cheers on Wednesday as the South Korean Parliament voted to end martial law that President Yoon Suk Yeol declared in a surprise address just hours earlier.
After Parliament voted in favour of a motion demanding the lifting of martial law at around 1 a.m. on Wednesday, citizens who were confronting the military and the police at the main gate of the National Assembly burst into cheers and roared in celebration, Yonhap news agency reported.
Martial law troops still remain inside the National Assembly, while some military vehicles were also seen nearby.
Yoon’s surprise declaration of martial law late Tuesday also caused confusion among some citizens, prompting them to scurry back home.
South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party called the President’s move “essentially a coup d’etat,” saying it was illegal and in violation of the country’s constitution.
President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in a late-night televised address on Tuesday amid a dispute with opposition parties he accused of pro-North Korean sympathies and anti-state activities.
Legislators gathered in an emergency session of the National Assembly — as parliamentary aides attempted to stop armed officers from entering the building — to unanimously vote against Yoon’s declaration of martial law for the first time in South Korea since 1980.
Seoul’s Defence Ministry said after the vote that it would continue to maintain martial law until the President instructed otherwise, leaving the two sides at loggerheads as the crisis stretched into the early hours of Wednesday morning with no sign of a resolution. South Korean law states that the President must comply with Parliament’s vote to block martial law, but it doesn’t specify a time frame.
The declaration of martial law drew immediate opposition from politicians, including the leader of Yoon’s conservative People Power Party, Han Dong-hoon, who called it “wrong” and vowed to “stop it with the people”.
Yoon is known for labelling his political opponents “anti-state forces” and “fake news”. His administration, which took over in May 2022, has massively stepped up the use of defamation lawsuits against the press. He has also been locked in an impasse with the liberal Democratic Party over next year’s budget and drawn rebukes from his political rivals for dismissing calls for independent investigations into scandals involving his wife and top officials, but there had been no hint that he intended to declare martial law.
A spokesperson for the US National Security Council said Washington was not notified in advance of Yoon’s plans.
“We are seriously concerned by the developments we are seeing on the ground,” the spokesperson said.
In his announcement, Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure to safeguard free and constitutional order, claiming opposition parties had taken the parliamentary process hostage in order to throw the country into crisis.
