[yeonsh]

Democracy in Korea at a Crossroad

On December 3, 2024, at 10:27 PM, President Yoon Seokyeol declared martial law. This declaration is illegal and constitutes a criminal act, directly violating the Constitution and other laws.

It is essentially a coup d'état.

The current political and social situation does not meet the criteria of "a time when it is necessary to respond to military needs or maintain public order in wartime or a similar national emergency" as outlined in Article 77 of the Constitution. Therefore, the emergency martial law is invalid and illegal, and the president should be held accountable. Additionally, martial law is procedurally invalid as there was no cabinet meeting, which is required by Article 2(5) of the Martial Law Act. This martial law is null and void!

It is illegal for martial law forces to enter the National Assembly. We demand the immediate lifting of martial law.

Kim Min-seok, Member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea

http://youtube.com/post/Ugkxb5QujtsQagPZalY1RJLx8Cd-W3gdyqO1...

[nickff]

How is this a coup? It doesn't seem to fall under Wikipedia or any other definition I can find. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#:~:text=A%2....

Do you consider Justin Trudeau's invocation of the Emergencies Act in Canada to have been a coup?

[hyeonwho4]

The military tried to physically prevent the National Assembly from meeting on a vote to disband the martial law. If they had been successful, the elected National Assembly would have no power. That's about as close to a military takeover as you can get without shots being fired.

[ExoticPearTree]

From what I could understand from the news: - the current parliament and the president are at war: the president vetoed any law the parliament passed because he doesn't like them. The parliament voted the budget and cut funding to whatever the president wished for.

- all political parties voted to have the martial law order revoked.

I don't know what the fallout of this will be, but the curent president of South Korea is toast. He went all in and lost big time.

[vundercind]

Declaration of martial law isn't necessarily a coup attempt, in the same way that walking into the parliament building—hell, maybe even walking in armed—isn't necessarily a coup attempt.

On the other hand, declaration of martial law or walking armed into parliament might well be a coup attempt.

Context and intent is everything.

[sooheon]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-coup

Korean law specifically prohibits presidential interference with the legislative branch even under martial law, a clause written in blood. The first thing Yoon did was try to lock down the legislature and arrest party leaders. This is a blatantly unconstitutional self coup attempt.