South Korea’s Coup That Wasn’t

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol initiated martial law on Tuesday of this week, claiming that North Korean sympathizers have infiltrated the opposition party: the Democratic Party of Korea. Martial law was over before it truly started, what happened?

Washington, DC is fourteen hours ahead of Seoul. London is nine hours behind, Berlin is eight, and New Delhi is three.

No matter your time zone, you may have slept through the fact that South Korea, not North Korea, was under martial law. Now, it isn’t.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol announced emergency measures late Tuesday night around 10:40 PM local time, citing “anti-state forces” within the opposition party allegedly supported by the North Korean government. The Presidential Office was silent, save for Yoon’s ominous promise that he would “rebuild and protect a free South Korea which is falling into the depths of national ruin.”

Around midnight, over 150 lawmakers, the quorum requirement, arrived at the National Assembly in Yeouido-dong, just south of the Han River. They were met by nearly 300 special operations unit personnel transported by helicopter and dropped at a nearby soccer field. At the gates, lawmakers clash with the pro-declaration forces, attempting to bull-rush the turn styles or, in opposition leader Lee Jae-myung’s case, live-streamed his climb over the fence. To say the situation was frantic and chaotic would be a massive understatement.

Come the arrival of one AM, the motion to revoke the declaration of martial law was introduced and accepted with unanimous support from the 190 total lawmakers in attendance in less than five minutes. From that point, military personnel began their slow return to base, fully leaving by 4:30 AM.

In all, the action lasted less than two hours.

The Background  

President Yoon leads the People Power Party (PPP), which clashes against the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) every election cycle. It is generally the familiarconservative vs. progressive dichotomy one would see in any Western country.

The PPP hosts a supreme disdain for North Korea’s Kim family dynasty while keeping alive the desire to unite the peninsula under one government and one people. This is largely because the PPP represents the concerns of an older demographic who lived through the Korean War and its disastrous aftermath, ones who remember one united peninsula after breaking the chains of Japanese colonialism.

The DPK represents an often younger demographic of those born after the Korean War who did not live in Korea, the poorest nation on Earth, but a prosperous South Korea with great economic success and opportunity. Generally, the DPK believes that North Korea is a separate nation, and they support coexistence and open dialogue between Seoul and Pyongyang, asexemplified by previous President Moon Jae-in. The DPK certainly does not like the one-party dictatorship the Kim family holds but posits that both Koreas should actively engage with each other for better relations.

It is this openness toward the North Korean regime from which President Yoon derived justification for martial law and combating these “anti-state forces.” The DPK controls the majority of the South Korean legislature as well, which Yoon claimed was the reason why his country is experiencing an economic and political crisis that only a militant crackdown can fix.

The Ghosts of ‘79  

This is unfortunately not new to South Korea. December 12, 1979, is widely known across the country as the frigid night that the Hanahoe, a secret society of high-ranking military leaders with disdain for the democratic process, successfully enacted a Coup d’état and overthrew South Korean democracy while it was still in its infancy. Thus, the country was plunged into martial law until 1980, and the members of the Hanahoe society solidified their position as the sole carriers of political power until the early 90s.

Yoon and His Claims

Is there any validity in Yoon’s claims? Have communist sympathizers aiding the North Korean regime infiltrated the opposition party?

No one is taking these claims seriously, instead, lawmakers are pointing towardhis freefalling national popularity and multiple scandals. These facts paint a picture of an unpopular leader feeling the power he fought so hard to attain slip from his grasp, therefore creating a scapegoat to justify silencing opponents and overthrowing the democratic process. Instead, it seems he may have just fast-tracked his own impeachment.

This perspective is shared and supported by Yoon’s party. The leader of the PPP, Han Dong-hoon, called for the martial law decree to be dropped with, “the power of this people…[this is] illegal and unconstitutional.”

President Yoon did not have a Hanahoe 2.0 up his sleeve, that much is clear.

Though the uncertainty has died, soldiers still advanced inside the main building of the National Assembly, the offices of the Democratic Party likely still have couches and chairs strewn about their offices from the impromptu blockades on the doors and windows, and the average citizens encircled government buildings wondering if their lives and their country were about to change.

Yes, it was quelled, but this flashbang shook Korea to its core for the few hours that martial law was active.

About the Author: Lake Dodson 

Lake Dodson is an Assistant Editor for the National Interest. His interests are Korean-American relations, cybersecurity policy, and nuclear energy/weapons policy. He currently studies the Korean language and has completed courses on North-South Korean Relations and conducted various experiments on an AGN-201K Nuclear Reactor at the prestigious Kyung-hee University in Suwon, South Korea. His specific interests are effective nuclear energy policy, cyber-security, and the economy and politics of East Asia. He holds a BA from the University of Mississippi.  

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