EXPLAINER - What led President Yoon to declare martial law in South Korea?

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in a shock decision declared martial law in the country late Tuesday, first time in 45 years.

However, 190 lawmakers in the 300-seated parliament, voted down the president's move.

Yoon’s decision to impose martial sent shock waves across the nation, triggering mass protests including in capital Seoul where people chanted: “Lift martial law, protect democracy, impeach President Yoon.”

After the decree, armed soldiers were seen entering the parliament's main building, but they retracted after lawmakers voted to block the declaration.

A woman was seen grabbing gun of a soldier and yelling at him: “Are you not ashamed?”

Yoon’s own People Power Party (PPP) blasted his decision, describing it as “unconstitutional and illegal.”

Won Shik Woo, speaker of the opposition-dominated parliament, declared "annulment of martial law" after the lawmakers rushed to vote against Yoon’s decision.

- ‘Short-lived’ martial law

In the startling move, Yoon, 63, said in a late-night television address that imposing martial law was necessary to “protect the country from North Korea's communist forces and to eliminate anti-state elements.”

He named chief of army staff Gen. Park An-su as the martial law commander, effective 23:00 local time (1400GMT) Tuesday.

Without sharing any details of threats posed by Pyongyang, Yoon accused the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) of “paralyzing governance solely for the sake of impeachments, special investigations, and shielding their leader from justice.”

“Our National Assembly (Parliament) has become a haven for criminals, a den of legislative dictatorship that seeks to paralyze the judicial and administrative systems and overturn our liberal democratic order," he said.

Last week, the opposition, which has a majority in parliament, voted to impeach some of the country’s top prosecutors and rejected a government budget proposal.

Following the declaration of martial law, all political activities, including the parliamentary work, local councils, and political parties, political associations, rallies and demonstrations were prohibited.

But all the 190 lawmakers, who joined the parliamentary proceedings after midnight, blocked Yoon’s move.

Under law, the president is bound to lift the martial law if parliament demands by a majority vote. Yoon later said he will comply with the National Assembly's decision after convening a cabinet meeting.

The Defense Ministry said it will follow orders only from the president’s office, with the military arguing it will "maintain martial law until lifted by the president."

The Constitution empowers the president to declare martial law in times of war, armed conflict, a national emergency, or “when public safety and order require it.”

“We will … restore the country to normalcy as quickly as possible,” Yoon had said in his declaration.

South Korea, home to over 51 million people, became a parliamentary democracy in 1987 and was ruled by military governments after the Korean war in the 1950s.

- Opposition dominated parliament

South Korea held parliamentary elections in April this year, and with Yoon’s dropping approval ratings, opposition Democratic Party alone won a majority of 170 seats.

The elections, interestingly, saw the highest voter turnout of 67% in the past 32 years.

- Demand for probe into first lady

Yoon, a former chief prosecutor, has been frustrated by the parliament, which thrice voted to probe first lady Kim Keon-hee.

Kim has been accused of influencing the ruling PPP’s candidate nominations ahead of the general elections.

She has also faced criticism for accepting a luxury handbag as a gift from a Korean American pastor, as well as is allegedly involved in a stock manipulation scheme, and accused of meddling in government affairs.

Prosecutors, however, decided not to indict her.

Not only has Yoon been at odds with opposition, but his administration has run in conflict with the ruling PPP leader Han Dong-hoon.

Han had stressed that an independent probe into allegations against the first lady was crucial to “restore public trust.”

In recent weeks, prosecutors raided the headquarters of the ruling party as part of an ongoing probe into an influence-peddling scandal linked to the parliamentary by-elections in 2022.

In the face of the opposition, Yoon skipped presenting the budget himself last month. It was first time in 11 years that a president did not present attend the parliament for budget speech, which was, instead, read by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.

Yoon's administration has also been seen going after opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, who is facing a flurry of cases including money laundering into North Korea.

The main opposition DP called Yoon’s decision to declare martial law “essentially a coup d’état.”

“The emergency martial law is invalid and illegal, and the president should be held accountable,” it said, adding that the move was invalid because he made the decision “without a cabinet meeting.”

- Martial law amid ice-cold ties with North Korea

Since assuming office, Yoon has moved fast to close ranks with the US and also join Japan in a trilateral move against North Korea.

He vowed to “end” regime in Pyongyang should North Korea move against Seoul.

However, it has backfired back home where the opposition has sought to calm down tensions with North Korea.

Yoon’s predecessor Moon Jae-in has described the situation on the Korean Peninsula as “most dangerous” since the Korean War.

North Korea has signed a comprehensive alliance pact with Russia, with Seoul claiming that Pyongyang has sent thousands of soldiers to Moscow in its war against Ukraine.

Yoon called military ties between North Korea and Russia “illegal,” vowing “thorough countermeasures” from Seoul, including possible lifting of ban on arms supplies to Kyiv. Such a decision, however, could have also been voted down by the National Assembly.

Seoul and Pyongyang have ended almost all bilateral pacts, many of which were signed by the last administration led by Moon in Seoul.

- South Korea in limbo

The political crisis, for now, appears to linger on.

The opposition-dominated parliament has left Yoon's administration with no power to implement policy decisions.

It was in August that Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Min-seok had raised suspicions that the Yoon administration was preparing to declare martial law to "neutralize the opposition party."

Lee, the opposition leader, had backed the claims in a conversation with the PPP leader Han.

But any move by opposition to impeach Yoon, whose term ends in 2027, would require a motion proposed by a majority of lawmakers and approved by two-thirds or more -- meaning 200 of 300 lawmakers must vote to approve any such motion.

The motion to lift martial law showed that the ruling party lawmakers mostly stayed away from joining the opposition camp, whose 190 lawmakers voted against the president's move.