‘NO to martial law! Strike down the dictatorship! Open the gate!’ demonstrators shouted outside South Korea’s Parliament last night after President Yoon Suk Yeol had declared martial law.
With mass demonstrations outside parliament in the middle of the night, MPs quickly assembled and voted 190-0 out of a 300-seat assembly to block the president’s martial law move and the Parliament’s Speaker declared the announcement ‘illegal’.
Initially, after the declaration of martial law, heavily armed military had assembled outside parliament and blocked the entrances with military buses.
However, the military were forced to rapidly disperse when the South Korean parliament voted to overturn the martial law and smashed the military threat.
Declaring the martial law invalid, the Speaker added that anyone acting under martial law was actually breaking the law.
Earlier, in a late night television address to the nation, President Yoon had said: ‘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 warned: ‘I will crush anti-state forces and return life in the country to normal as soon as possible.
‘The National Assembly has become a haven for criminals, paralysing the judicial and administrative systems and attempting to overthrow the free democratic system through legislative dictatorship.’
After the martial law announcement, Park An-su, Chief of Staff of the South Korean Army, had announced a ban on activities of the National Assembly and a ban on political parties and trade unions from holding rallies and that all media outlets and articles would be subject to strict control.
South Korea’s main opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung condemned the move, calling it unconstitutional and called on all lawmakers from his Democratic Party to converge on parliament to vote down the declaration.
A huge crowd built up outside the National Assembly building, where the opposition declared the president’s announcement unconstitutional.
The South Korean parliament must now instruct the military to return immediately to their barracks and to play no part in any coup attempt.
The parliament must make approaches to the North Korean government for the commencement of talks to prepare the way for the reunification of Korea and for the creation of a Korean socialist republic covering the whole of the country.
The US and UK workers organisations must now intervene to urge no interference and that the Korean people must be allowed to go forward to reunify the
country.
