South Korea plunged into overnight crisis as president briefly puts country under military lockdown

Yoon, a conservative, made a surprise declaration of martial law during a late-night televised speech on Tuesday. He claimed that the main liberal opposition party was sympathetic to North Korea, the nation’s longtime rival, and accused opposition lawmakers of attempting to destabilize South Korea. To fight this alleged foreign influence, Yoon evoked a provision in the country’s constitution that allows the president to declare martial law, a form of military rule, in cases of national emergency. Under martial law, the president can ban protests, censor speech and suspend political activities, among other powers. In the country’s past, South Korean dictators used martial law declarations many times, but none had been issued since the country became a democracy in the late 1980s.

Yoon briefly used the sweeping martial law powers to send troops into the capital, Seoul, and to prevent parliament — which has the power to override a martial law decree — from meeting. Despite the military presence, many South Koreans came out in protest. Additionally, 190 of the 300 members of the National Assembly, including some members of Yoon’s party, defied troops to convene; some of the legislators even climbed the building walls to get inside. Once assembled, they voted unanimously to cancel the martial law declaration. Early Wednesday morning, only a few hours after declaring martial law, Yoon announced he would respect the parliament’s decision and lift the decree.

Political implications for South Korea and the United States

While Yoon framed it as a national security crisis, others have painted it as a political dispute, with Yoon plagued by political scandals and frustrated at the opposition for blocking his agenda. After a series of blunders and accusations of corruption against Yoon and his wife, the opposition party won most seats in the recent election and slashed the president’s budget. Opposition lawmakers have also sought to impeach members of Yoon’s administration for failing to investigate allegations against Yoon’s wife. Now, Yoon himself faces likely impeachment following the martial law debacle, which may mark the end of his political career.

The political dispute also has implications for the United States, which defended South Korea from the communist north in the Korean War and still has tens of thousands of troops stationed in the country. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump has complained about the cost of the United States military presence in South Korea and pursued a friendlier relationship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, leaving uncertainty about the United States-South Korea relationship under a second Trump administration. Yoon, however, was reportedly set to try to pursue close ties to Trump, and some have compared the attempt at martial law to the attempts by Trump and his supporters to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

For now, relative calm has been restored to South Korea, but the full fallout of the brief attempt at military rule may not be known for some time. However, the incident has shaken South Koreans, who fear returning to the country’s authoritarian past and added uncertainty about the country’s stability during an uncertain time in global politics.