190 deputies out of 300 in the Korean National Assembly took part in the vote.
The situation was confused during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in South Korea. It was around 1 a.m. local time that the Korean National Assembly invalidated the martial law proclaimed earlier in the day by Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. 190 deputies out of the 300 that the Assembly normally has were able to take part in the vote.
In the process, the Speaker of Parliament indicated that “the soldiers who entered the National Assembly hall all came out” as they prepared to enter the main hall of the National Assembly in Seoul.
On Tuesday evening, during a televised speech, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, 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”, declared the president in a televised address. Calling on the people to trust him, the South Korean leader assures that he is acting in this way to avoid a blockage of the country in the face of recent positions of the opposition on the reduction of the budget.
He notably cited a motion presented this week by the Democratic Party, the majority opposition party in Parliament, aimed at dismissing some of the country's top prosecutors and its rejection of a government budget proposal.
The Democratic Party then called on its deputies to go to Parliament, reported the South Korean news agency Yonhap.
