South Korea President Yoon declares martial law
South Korea President Yoon declares martial law
www.reuters.com
reuters.com
147 comments
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After Yoon's statement the military said activities by parliament and political parties would be banned, and that media and publishers would be under the control of the martial law command.
Yoon did not cite any specific threat from the nuclear-armed North, instead focusing on his domestic political opponents. It is the first time since 1980 that martial law has been declared in South Korea.
That's uh pretty explicit. Not quoted are two other key facts;
- In South Korean law parliament can end Martial Law with a simple majority vote.
- They did that vote immediately.
- The Army "attempted" to take the parliament building but was rebuffed by staff members and fire extinguishers.
Y'all, those soldiers were not on board with this idea. And this is all vitally important because South Korea was a dictatorship for most of the cold war. This is absolutely an attempt to reinstate that.
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How would that vote be held if the original Martial Law declaration banned Parliament from meeting? It seems like a gigantic loophole they need to close immediately before the president or a successor tries this again.
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Banning them, even under Martial Law is illegal.
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Kim Chonk Un calls Xi Jinping to secure a bulk deal on military-grade fire extinguishers
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Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis.
Not very familiar with the political situation in Seoul, but saying your political opponents are supporting North Korea sounds like a pretty serious accusation.
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We just don't get it, he is removing freedom to protect freedom... It's simple... /s
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Is Martial law ever declared in a non-corrupt, power-grabbing way?
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Canada invoked the Emergencies Act in 2022 when the national capital was occupied by a convoy of antivaxers who shut down the city for days. There was some debate as to whether it was necessary and there was an inquiry afterward. The main reason for invoking it was to allow the federal government to use law enforcement since the Ottawa municipal police mostly sat on its hands during the whole debacle.
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Also in Canada, the War Measures Act was used during the FLQ Crisis in 1970. While some may disagree with using martial law, I don't think many would say it was used in a corrupt, power-grabbing way.
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As a Canadian, I can assure you everyone on the right considered it a corrupt, powergrab. Whether or not you agree is of course up to you, but it's not a clear sky case
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Occasionally in response to things like floods and other disasters. Though then it's usually local and short lived.
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After reading the article it definitely sounds like power-grabbing, but I don’t know much about the Korean Democratic Party so I’m not sure
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I think the only time martial law can be seen as reasonable is in an outright state of war. And even then, only when it's existential.
It's kind of inherently the antithesis of democratic values.
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Strictly speaking, the war with the North never formally ended, but that's a whole problem in itself.
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In response to full civil war rebellion. This is not that.
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Yoon cited a motion by the country's opposition Democratic Party, which has a majority in parliament, this week to impeach some of the country's top prosecutors and its rejection of a government budget proposal.
Imagine declaring martial law, and these were the only concrete reasons you could come up with.
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Dude broke the first three laws of Couping. Control the lawmakers, control the core of the military, control the media. Win these and you control the narrative.
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So it was just a little try to get his country back to a dictatorship (with him at the top) because he was too unpopular.
There really should be laws that one must be psychically healthy to be parliament or president.
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Who had south Korea becoming a fascist state?
Do I hear bingo from the back?
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I'll be honest I had South Korean oligarch class does ridiculous cult shit and causes headlines. Does that count?
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Close enough I will allow it 😁
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Who had south Korea becoming a fascist state?
I don't read or speak Korean but maybe the president ran on making South Korea
GreatFascist Again? South Korea only democratized in 1987. -
The
rat racesquid game eventually ends, as it's not sustainable.
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We really are in WW3 we just haven't noticed it fully yet.
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We're nearly at the end of the" Lead up to World War Three" chapter.
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"Rising economic and social tensions in the West" heading on wikipedia
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Yup.
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I can't remember when I came to the realization, but for years now I thought that if (and I would love to hold on to the naive hope that it is an "if") WW3 breaks out then the battle lines would be drawn between the forces of autocracy and democracy. Those would be our sides.
Now, I'm not even sure democracy is gonna make it out the gate... America's elected a dictator who's aligned with Russia who is itself a major factor of this unholy autocratic alliance with China, North Korea, and Iran... Now this?
There were no "good guys" in world war 1. It was the result of squabbleing European powers not realizing the destructive potential modern military technology had and how much that changed the game. It needed to happen in the sense that countries couldn't continue to act the way they had prior to the great war, but that doesn't mean anyone was in the right.
It's hard to imagine "good guys" in world war 3 either. Increasingly, it kinda just seems like it's a choice between "what shit flavor of authoritarianism do you hate less?". Assuming that question even matters considered all the nuclear weapons that could fly in a third world war.
I dunno man, shit's just looking pretty fucking bleak.
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We are still mostly in the stage where it might be diplomatically avoided, but if it does start, yes, this will have been a small part of the start of it. Like the last couple of decades to varying degrees at various points. It's still potentially avoidable, but honestly, in some places, it feels like it has already been going for a long time. Currently, they don't count as part of a world war, but if a world war breaks out, they will then retroactively count as part of it. If everything settles down before getting to that point, then these will have been individual events that were largely connected to a similar crisis.
It's not like anyone knew at the time what day world war 1 and 2 started on the days we now consider them to have officially started. For world war 1, there was really no precedent. So they certainly would have had no idea on the day we consider it to have started. Used to take months to even find out 2 other countries were at war, let alone the time it took to them react to that information and muster up support or further opposition. World wars only really became possible once world-wide near instantaneous communication was available. I'm not sure how long it even took to coin the phrase "world war", but they figured that would be the only time something like that would ever happen, considering not only the cost/rammifications, but how widespread word of how bad it was could be with such quick communication.
No one would soon forget the various costs... but then we had a source of motivation that outgrew those costs. So world war 2. At least we knew what to call it this time. People were probably a bit less fuzzy on the day it officially started, but a lot of that would have to do with what country they lived in. And it still eventually mostly had to be hammered out by historians to really figure out what all should be considered part of it.
So, it's still a bit schroedinger's WW3, all these events are in the box waiting to see what they will eventually be called once it's time to examine the contents of the box.
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Not a good look, and I have a hard time seeing the people of South Korea accept this and just rolling over. Ugh.
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But the military seems to be going along with it, blocking out legislators (even from Yoon's own party).
And, uh, the precedent for that isn't good, even if a majority dont support it.
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I'm sure this will just be a misunderstanding that will be cleared up in no time. Let me know when that happens.
... I'll be in my bunker.
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world users not beating accussations of never reading linked article
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Woosh
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Should.. we be alarmed by this?
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Not just yet. It sounds like it's him against the rest of the government. Hopefully he can be removed swiftly.
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It's not their first time descending into a dictatorship.
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can't they have a no-confidence vote?
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He’s using the military to block legislators from making any vote to end this
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It's honestly insane that these sorts of technicalities are even possible to block the vote. "I called dictatorshipsies and you weren't in the parliament building when you clearly, overwhelmingly said 'no', so I guess no takesies backsies." There probably ought to be some sort of provision in Korean law going forward that if it isn't possible to enter the parliament building, they can hold the vote elsewhere.
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Yonhap news agency cited the military as saying activities by parliament and political parties would be banned, and that media and publishers would be under the control of the martial law command.
i see now, article was updated
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Yoon cited a motion by the country's opposition Democratic Party, which has a majority in parliament
hol up, just how this happens
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The president and the government seems to have a longer mandate than the individual representatives.
They lost the last election, hard, so this is a lame duck government.
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He's president, not prime minister. Removing him would require an impeachment, which usually has a higher barrier then a no confidence vote, though I'm not familiar with Korean government.
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ok but PPP with 108 seats out of 300 somehow forms government, and not DPK with 170
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I declare forest law the king of iron fist tournament
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I hope this can make realize South Koreans how much stupid mandatory draft is
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On the other hand, that may be why the Army let staff members with fire extinguishers keep them out of Parliament. It's a lot harder to get consent for a coup from the military if the rank and file closely resemble the people instead of a separate class.
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Different topic a little, but I think a compulsory year or two of service is good for a society.
That said, nations that do it tend to always make it military, when at minimum, there should be a societal service/peace core option, and preferably that should be the common option taken. (help build homeless housing, soup kitchens, etc)
Here in the US, we aren't a society. We have a sociopathic culture we try to reframe as being "ruggedly individual" aka free to die in the gutter alone. Empathy is a bad word here and our elite's children go to different schools than our people. National compulsory service might buy some social buy in.
But we'd rather work against one another in a race to the bottom than lift each other up as a people.
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Different topic a little, but I think a compulsory year or two of service is good for a society.
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Martial law is dictatorship anyone who advocates for it under any circumstances is an enemy of freedom
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Not really. It's good for a while when the freedoms of your country are being attacked by another country. It's a way to get a country to be put on pause while military issues are being handled and everybody is supposed to work together in unison. What it's not good for is to use it on local opponents or your own people. So just like any other weapon or tool it should be used correctly by people with good intentions. That's what it's there for anyways. Almost every country has a form of martial law.
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Disagree.
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You are talking exactly like a dictator. Freedom is not something you give to people and take away when needed. A switch to take freedom away shouldn't exist and whoever press it is attacking freedom themself.
Almost every country has a form of martial law.
Almost every country is a police state rooted in murder and violence ruled by corrupted politicians.
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Just watched the chilling footage of Hussein's power grab the other day and this looks oddly familiar.
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That’s cool and all but when are they freeing my boy Johnny Somali?
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What about all the US troops stationed there?
I hate to make the jump, but... Is this because of the US election? Is Yoon thinking Trump will be friendly to a dictatorship? I can't imagine Harris letting this slide, and Biden had a month and tends to be conservative in responses anyway.
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The universe does not revolve around trump. Korea seems to have it's own asshole.
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Hi Jeena, long time no see 👋
It certainly isn't because of Trump, but Yoon is really well known for the same sort of behavior. Covering up investigations, implementing reactionary (but overall pointless) policies, suing media for defamation, denying the existence of sexism, and all the other good stuff.
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Indeed, I meant to say I hate to sound so american centric.
But I thought US bases were pretty essential to SK's security against NK?
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What about them? They were there while South Korea was a dictatorship, weren't they?
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Yup the south is totally a democracy guys. It's those northern communists that are pillaging out happiness. Pay no mind to the capitalist hellscape it's actually communisms fault. Oh you don't agree we'll time to declare martial law. Democratically
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Watch the rest of South Korea's politicians swiftly depose Yoon for this absolute fuckery (edit: to clarify, even his own party is lambasting this as unconstitutional). I've never seen a change in leadership, meanwhile, as North Korea has spent at minimum the last 35 years under a dictator imposing martial law in the form of Songun, spending 25% of their budget on the military while millions of their people have starved to death.
Piss off with this disgusting, tankie bullshit.
Edit: Two hours after the declaration, their parliament has voted 190–0 to end martial law. Totally North Korea, guys.
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I didn't say north Korea was good but ok.
I was making fun of Yoon's reasoning here where he literally blamed communists for pillaging happiness from the south. I guess that's not allowed without also condemning north Korea?
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Edit: Two hours after the declaration, their parliament has voted 190–0 to end martial law. Totally North Korea, guys.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cn38321180et?post=asset%3Acb5be5ba-c24f-462c-be58-5fa0b8de3dcc#post
Military says martial law will be maintained until lifted by presidentpublished at 12:23 12:23
The South Korean military says it will maintain martial law until it is lifted by President Yoon Suk Yeol, despite the nation's parliament voting to block its enforcement, according to the country's national broadcaster.
Totally normal democracy stuff here guys. Yoon's also in lame duck period too.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_South_Korea
You've never seen a change in leadership? They've changed presidents and parties fairly regularly...
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147 comments
They declared martial law over a budget proposal??
Their parliament has just voted 190–0 to end martial law.
Edit: Yoon has just agreed to hold a cabinet meeting to end the martial law as voted by the National Assembly.
My god they are so efficient. Whole thing lasted like 3 hours
So, the following is a genuine question and not a snide remark.
Does that matter? Is the military going to respect that? I'd heard prior to this that the military had forbade parliament from gathering. What's to say they don't just side with Yoon?Certainly wouldn't be the first time in history that a nation's military has dictated the corse of the nation's civil future. I really hate asking questions like this but I'm just not familiar enough with the politics of South Korea to know if this a done and dusted thing or if the military is likely to go for a coup if Yoon pitches it.
A clean vote, that's good.
Going full fascist to enforce austerity.
Maybe, keep in mind that reporting is going off the information they have. It might be deeper than that. Only time will tell.
I've got to start reading Korean news