They said it wouldn’t happen again in South Korea — not after more than four decades during which hundreds of thousands of people were beaten, tortured, jailed, and killed while defending democracy against one strongman after another.
Another military coup seemed to be out of the question until the late evening of December 3, when the country’s conservative president, Yoon Suk-yeol abruptly declared martial law on live TV. He attempted to brand his political opponents as pro–North Korea communist sympathizers, using rhetoric reminiscent of the brutal rule of his authoritarian predecessors.
Within less than three hours, the former top prosecutor’s coup attempt, mimicking the track record of army generals in decades past, quickly unraveled, with a swift vote at the National Assembly that blocked the imposition of martial law. Three hours later, Yoon said he would respect the legislature resolution.
On the morning of December 4, a cabinet meeting was convened to rescind martial law. Later in the afternoon, his entire cabinet expressed its collective willingness to resign, and the main opposition force, the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), set in motion an impeachment bill for the president.
Yoon’s plot proved to be poorly conceived. However, during the longest six hours in recent Korean memory, he came alarmingly close to achieving his aim, despite procedural safeguards embedded in the 1987 constitution to prevent coups as part of the country’s democratization efforts.
The president showed that he could bypass a constitutionally mandated…
Auteur: Kap Seol
