South Korea. The President disavowed on his martial law

Of the pro-North Korean commies . This is how, as early as April, the very conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol had described his progressive opponents in the Democratic Party (DP). Tuesday evening, Yoon went further, leaving his 51 million fellow citizens speechless by speaking impromptu on the public television channel YTN pour declare martial law .

Unheard of since the end of the military dictatorship forty years ago. But according to Yoon, there is an urgent need to protect the country against the threat of North Korean communist forces . The President accuses the opposition of having made Parliament a den of criminals . With a majority in the assembly since the legislative elections in April, the Democratic Party would do everything, according to Yoon, to establish a legislative dictatorship in order to overthrow free democracy .

The army on maneuver

In the process, helicopters landed on the roof of Parliament in Seoul. Several deputies were already inside the building, placed “under seal” by special forces soldiers, according to Yonhap. Outside, the South Korean press agency also reported clashes between demonstrators and the police.

Yoon Suk-yeol betrays the people, protested PD leader Lee Jae-myung. We cannot let the military rule this country. For the opposition leader, martial law is null and void . According to the Constitution, the President is well authorized to declare such a state of emergency. In a statement, the head of the army, Park An-su, confirmed that all political activities were already banned and the media placed under surveillance.

At stake, the vote… of the budget

Coming to power in March 2022, Yoon Suk-yeol, a 63-year-old former prosecutor, has never hidden his little esteem for the press and any form of dissent, systematically accused of collusion with the historic enemy, Korea. from the North. More than 71 years after the end of the war (1950-1953), the two countries are still officially in conflict, the signed armistice never having led to a peace treaty.

Rather than the accusation, which does not hold up, of proximity to the North Korean dictatorship, the Democratic Party above all had the bad taste to oppose the budget project defended by the government. And to demand the dismissal of certain prosecutors, people close to the President.

Yoon, who denounces the motions for impeachment repeatedly drawn against members of his entourage – he cites 32 in two years – would he have decreed martial law with the sole aim of stifling all dissent? Doubt quickly spread to his own conservative camp: Han Dong-hoon, the leader of his People Power party (PPP), immediately denounced an error » of the President. On Facebook, he promised to work with citizens to put an end to it .

It was done at 1 a.m. (5 p.m. in France): 190 deputies out of the 300 sitting in Parliament voted to demand the repeal of martial law. Among them are around twenty rebels from Yoon's party. Around 2 a.m., the army left Parliament.