The president accuses the opposition of conniving with North Korea. The government and the opposition plan to block the emergency law.
Riikka Kajander,
Leonard Wilhelmus,
Tuukka Tervonen
16:12•Updated 17:09
President of South Korea Yoon Suk Yeol has declared a state of emergency in the country, the news agencies AFP and Reuters report.
“I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to destroy North Korea’s forces to take away our freedom and happiness, and to protect the free constitutional order,” Yoon said in a televised speech.
Yoon did not provide concrete evidence of North Korea’s actions. Instead, he accused his political opponents, the main opposition party, of colluding with North Korea.
The army shut down the parliament
South Korean news agency Yonhap by a general has been appointed as the commander of the state of emergency Park An-Soowho is also the Commander-in-Chief of the South Korean Army.
According to Yonhap, General Park has banned parliament, political parties and associations, and banned demonstrations and strikes.
According to Yonhap, Park is also saidthat the country’s media is taken over. Violators can be arrested without warrants and sentenced according to martial law.
Heavily equipped police forces have blocked access to the country’s parliament, and helicopters are landing on the building’s roof, South Korean media reports show.
The opposition and the ruling party were knocked out
Yeol’s declaration came after the country’s opposition party ranted through a reduced budget in the parliament’s finance committee and filed impeachment charges against the state auditor and chief prosecutor.
According to the opposition, Yeol’s declaration is unconstitutional. The opposition has long accused the president of preparing the emergency law.
The opposition leaders have invited all their members to gather in front of the parliament.
Former President of South Korea Moon Jae-In said the communication service in X hoping that the country’s parliament would quickly do everything to save the country’s crumbling democracy. He also urged the people to protect democracy together.
South Korea has had several authoritarian leaders throughout its history, but since the 1980s, the country has been internationally considered a democracy.
The main government party represented by Yeol is also planning to block the president’s emergency law declaration.
Party chairman Han Dong-hoon called the exception law “wrong”.
According to South Korean law, the country’s government must cancel the emergency law if the majority of the country’s parliament representatives demand it.
An unpopular president
Yoon became South Korea’s president in 2022, narrowly winning the election by 0.7 percentage points.
The president’s approval ratings have been weak, and he has been embroiled in several scandals related to his wife. The president’s wife allegedly accepted, among other things, a Dior luxury bag worth millions from the pastor and manipulated the stock market.
Yoon has also had difficulty making policy, as the opposition holds a majority of seats in the country’s parliament.
The news is updated.