South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Tuesday, saying the measure was necessary to protect the country from “North Korean communist forces.”
“To protect liberal South Korea from threats posed by North Korean communist forces and eliminate anti-state elements (…) I declare emergency martial law,” the president said in a televised address. “Without concern for the livelihood of the people, the opposition party has paralyzed the government, for the purposes of impeachments, special investigations and to protect its leader from legal prosecution,” he added.
The national assembly, this “legislative dictatorship”
The surprise intervention comes as Yoon Suk Yeol’s People Power Party continues to battle with the main opposition Democratic Party over next year’s proposed budget. Opposition MPs approved a significantly reduced budget program last week through a committee.
“Our National Assembly has become a haven of criminals, a den of legislative dictatorship that seeks to paralyze the administrative and judicial systems and overthrow our liberal democratic order,” Yoon Suk Yeol said.
South Korea remains marked by the popular uprising in Gwangju on May 18, 1980, which protested against the military coup of General Chun Doo-hwan and the establishment of martial law – implemented under the pretext of fighting against North Korean threat. The demonstrations were bloodily repressed by the dictator’s army.
The president accused the elected representatives of the opposition of cutting “all budgets essential to the primary functions of the nation which are the fight against drug-related crimes and the maintenance of public security (…) transforming the country into a paradise drugs and in a place of chaos for public safety.
Yoon Suk Yeol went on to call the opposition, which holds a majority in Parliament, “forces hostile to the state intending to overthrow the regime.” He assured that his decision was “inevitable”. “I will restore normalcy to the country by getting rid of these anti-state forces as soon as possible,” added the South Korean president.
