South Korea turmoil (President declares martial law - Parliament reverses it) (1 Viewer)

[UncleTrvlingJim]

Is anyone familiar with what's going on? The president there declared martial law b/c the parliament is being obstructionist... which to me seems like a terrible excuse.

 

[RobF]

Is anyone familiar with what's going on? The president there declared martial law b/c the parliament is being obstructionist... which to me seems like a terrible excuse.

I'm not familiar with the background to it, just reading about it now:

South Korean president declares martial law over threat from ‘anti-state forces’

Yoon Suk Yeol says in late-night address that opposition parties have taken parliamentary process hostage

www.theguardian.com

Sounds extremely dubious on the face of it:

Yoon is known for labelling his political opponents as “anti-state forces” and “fake news”. His administration, which took over in May 2022, has massively stepped up the use of defamation lawsuits against press outfits.​

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In announcing martial law, Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, claiming opposition parties had taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis.​

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“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,” Yoon said.​

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So it sounds like he's just misrepresenting his opponents and then using that misrepresentation as an excuse for this. But I'm not familiar enough with the situation to know whether there's any merit at all to his claims, I just have the impression that it certainly looks like there isn't.

 

[RobF]

Following the Guardian's live coverage.

Park An-su is apparently the martial law commander, and he said:

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All political activities are banned in South Korea following the imposition of martial law on Tuesday and all media will be subject to government monitoring.​

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All political activities, including those of the national assembly, local councils, political parties, and political associations, as well as assemblies and demonstrations, are strictly prohibited.​

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All media and publications shall be subject to the control of the martial law command.​

But on that same link it also states that:

Under South Korean law, lawmakers cannot be arrested by the martial law command and the government has to lift martial law if most of the national assembly demands it in a vote.​

So it sounds like it's not actually legal to prohibit the activities of the national assembly. And indeed, "South Korea’s parliament, with 190 of its 300 members present, just passed a motion requiring the martial law declared by President Yoon Suk Yeol to be lifted," as of 20 minutes ago or so.

From what I gather, legally, the President has to comply with that. Not sure what happens if he just... doesn't. I guess legality goes out of the window and you're in coup territory at that point.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

Following the Guardian's live coverage.

Park An-su is apparently the martial law commander, and he said:

​

All political activities are banned in South Korea following the imposition of martial law on Tuesday and all media will be subject to government monitoring.​

​

All political activities, including those of the national assembly, local councils, political parties, and political associations, as well as assemblies and demonstrations, are strictly prohibited.​

​

All media and publications shall be subject to the control of the martial law command.​

But on that same link it also states that:

Under South Korean law, lawmakers cannot be arrested by the martial law command and the government has to lift martial law if most of the national assembly demands it in a vote.​

So it sounds like it's not actually legal to prohibit the activities of the national assembly. And indeed, "South Korea’s parliament, with 190 of its 300 members present, just passed a motion requiring the martial law declared by President Yoon Suk Yeol to be lifted," as of 20 minutes ago or so.

From what I gather, legally, the President has to comply with that. Not sure what happens if he just... doesn't. I guess legality goes out of the window and you're in coup territory at that point.

What a mess.. I hadn't followed South Korean politics that closely and didn't realize they were that fragile.

 

[First Time Poster]

Americans better pay attention. What's legal and constitutional sits on a house of cards. I'm not confident our checks and balances are strong enough to withstand such brazen action here.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

Americans better pay attention. What's legal and constitutional sits on a house of cards. I'm not confident our checks and balances are strong enough to withstand such brazen action here.

I actually think we're probably ok for the next 4 years, but we need to elect people who put a high priority on shoring up our institutional processes and safeguards.

It should be fairly easy to sell, just say we're also safeguarding against "lawfare", and so on.

 

[LonghornSaint]

My undergrad in my lab is half Korean with some family in Seoul. He was shocked to learn of this last night, and said nobody over there even understands why the Korean President did this, not even members of his own party. That's why there was a unanimous decision by their Parliament to reject the martial law, however their President has yet to respond. Korean troops are currently occupying the Congress and Parliament buildings to prevent political congregation, so far they're following the President's orders.

 

[superchuck500]

So to update this story -
President Yoon declared martial law, and even ordered the military to shut down parliament. But the body was able to get a quorum (they had 190 out of 300 members) and unanimously voted to overturn the declaration of martial law, which they can do under the law of ROK. The nation's largest union has called for general strike if the president tries to press martial law.

This is apparently coming off of months of partisan disagreement between the president and parliament.

 

[superchuck500]

 

[superchuck500]

This report notes that last month an "Impeachment Coalition" was launched in the ROK parliament.

Presumably, the decision is driven in large part by Yoon’s motivation to navigate through his mounting domestic political struggles and to confront what he views as the opposition party’s efforts to upend his presidency.

South Koreans have been strongly displeased with Yoon’s governance. For months, Yoon’s approval rating has languishing in the low 20s — recently falling as low as 17%. In a November survey, 58% of South Koreans stated they would like to see Yoon’s resignation or impeachment. This was expected to get worse against the backdrop of a looming corruption scandal involving Yoon, his wife, and a political broker over alleged election interference.

In light of this, a growing number of opposition party politicians have begun to call for Yoon’s impeachment in the National Assembly.

Fearing his enemies, South Korea's Yoon declares martial law

After 22 impeachment attempts, the embattled president likely thinks this radical course is warranted. But it just may backfire on him.

responsiblestatecraft.org

 

[superchuck500]