South Korea has been in political turmoil since December 3rd when President Yoon Suk-yeol declared Martial Law at 22:30 in a television speech. The 190 parliamentarians who entered the National Assembly despite the armed forces defending the building overturned the decision in a few hours and voted unanimously to lift the resolution. Since then, Seoul, the capital of South Korea, has been at the heart of protests and political unrest, ultimately leading to the President's impeachment on December 14th.
As an exchange student living in Seoul, I tried to understand what led to this historical conclusion and how the population felt in the 11 days that separated those two important dates.
It is important to remember that it’s not the first time a President has been impeached in South Korea. It has happened twice since the birth of its democracy in 1987. Almost every president has been caught in scandals of bribery, abuse of power, or corruption. However, is it fair to say that Yoon’s impeachment is “normal”? Or was this one any different from the previous two in 2004 and 2016? And what did it mean for the population?
The Gwangju Uprising: Turning Point for South Korean Democracy
South Korea’s struggle for democracy started following the assassination of its authoritarian ruler, Park Chung-hee. The Gwangju Uprising, in May 1980 paved the way for seven years of social movements of protests that led to the first democratic election in 1987. This was a pivotal point in Korean history. Interestingly, it is also the subject of Human, Acts (2014), the most renowned novel by Han Kang, a Korean author recognized with this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature.
The Gwangju Massacre killed hundreds of political activists, mostly students, becoming a powerful symbol of resistance in the Korean Peninsula. This bottom-up revolutionary movement succeeded in building a stable democracy that lasted until the night of December 3rd, 2024, when the ruling president declared martial law, 44 years after the last military rule and 37 years after the establishment of democracy.
Martial Law, the Unexpected Step of a Falling President
Yoon Suk-yeol (People Power Party) became president in May 2022 with the closest presidential race in South Korea's democratic history and won by a margin of 0,73% against Lee Jae-myung (Democratic Party). For the following two years, his approval rate steadily decreased, stabilizing around 35%, with many reasons coming along for this significant hatred towards him.
First, the president was highly disliked for his openly anti-feminist stance. Specifically, from his first days in office, he proposed abolishing the gender equality ministry in a country where the gender pay gap is the biggest of all OECD countries (31%). His image was also damaged due to the bad handling of the Itaewon Crowd Crush in October 2022, which resulted in 159 deaths. The corruption and bribery scandal involving his wife, Kim Keon-hee, ultimately caused significant damage to his reputation. Those are a few of the reasons why the public anger towards him constantly grew, explaining why his approval rate was only 17% one month before the declaration of martial law.
Therefore, the strong public dissatisfaction, coupled with the growing influence of the opposing Democratic Party—holding 170 out of 300 seats in the National Assembly—made it increasingly difficult for the president to implement his policies. While the exact reasons behind this brutal and unexpected measure remain uncertain, the growing discontent and the pressure from the opposition party undoubtedly played a role in leading to the infamous night of the 3rd of December 2024.
At 10.25 p.m., he took over the television channels:
“I declare martial law to protect the Republic of Korea from the threats of North Korean communist forces (...) It’s an inevitable measure to guarantee the people's freedom, safety, and national sustainability against the actions of antistate forces seeking to overthrow the system.”
This unpredictable move to suspend ordinary law and impose military rule in the democratic country sparked a quick response from 190 members of the parliament who rushed to the assembly to vote to overturn martial law. Despite efforts by the military to block their entry, the lawmakers made their way into the building, supported by hundreds of protesters who had gathered outside to denounce the president’s decision. They unanimously voted to lift the resolution. At 4:30 am, the president counter-reacted by revoking the declaration, provoking public indignation.
I went to different protests in the following days to ask the people present what it meant for them to have lived a few hours of Martial Law.
Over this period, four strong emotions emerged, leading to President Yoon’s impeachment on the 14th of December. In the following section, I will share some testimonies that capture these emotions: Fear, Anger, and Hope.
[Disclaimer: I am not trying to make the next paragraphs universal for the whole population nor for all the movements of protest that have taken place, but simply sharing the few encounters I had the chance to have and the atmosphere I felt in Seoul, South Korea.]
Fear
The first-moment people heard that Martial Law was declared, they could not believe it. Professor Yoo, teaching at Sungkyunkwan University, states, “It’s the craziest thing I’ve heard in my life”. They have all learned about the painful past of their country and the fight for democracy. That night, the terror kept some people frozen in front of the television. Others decided to go to the National Assembly and protest against this shocking decision straight away. This was the case of Professor Park, 65 years old, teaching at Hankuk University. He explained that in the 80s, and for the first time in his life, he fought for democracy in Seoul. He remembers very vividly the fear of martial law being imposed in 1980 and all his freedoms canceled. This wound pushed him, and hundreds of others, to come on this Tuesday night, despite the cold temperature, to help the parliamentarians enter the assembly. He saw the military getting violent as he did in his youth and feared for a few minutes that it was going to happen again. He talks about it as a trauma he cannot stand nor watch, but deeply inside, he knew he needed to come that night.
“44 years ago – he said – I came here despite my professors telling me it was useless. In the middle of my university years, I spent my time asking for democracy. Today, I can’t see my president make the same mistake, and I am ready to use my energy again to stop this”.
Anger
While talking with Professor Park, I felt that he developed his fear into anger in a natural way. The shock of hearing the return of martial law took everybody by surprise, and in the following days, this fear became anger. From that moment, thousands of citizens came to the streets every day. The president’s approval rate fell to 11% during those days. Furthermore, people were particularly frustrated with the president for exploiting the genuine daily threat of North Korea as an excuse to impose military rule. They could not believe that their leader, who was supposed to defend them from external threats, used this one to defend his political agenda.
Taeyang is a student at Yonsei University. He shared with me how he felt that day and how he lived the following week: “It was scary, but at the same time, it enraged me” he says. Having heard of martial law from his parents, and realizing that it might have happened again was simply not acceptable and unjust. From the next day, he began organizing and participating in various events at Yonsei University in Seoul. People were invited to explain what Yoon’s radical decision meant for the population, and simply share their thoughts.
“People’s anger doesn’t develop into a movement or action automatically. It has to be organized and shaped into a form of protest, public speeches, talks, and discussions” Taeyang explained. This is also what happened simultaneously in the whole country, where thousands of protesters came to protest, asking for the President’s impeachment. On the day of the first impeachment vote, held on Saturday, an estimated 150,000 protesters gathered outside the assembly—a turnout larger than expected. By the following week, for the second and final vote, the crowd had grown to an estimated 200,000, reflecting the intensifying public demand for the president’s removal.
Hope
Throughout the 11 days between the declaration and the impeachment, one thing that never died was hope. People knew that such a drastic measure would not go unpunished. This belief drove them to show up every day, braving temperatures dropping to -8°C, to demand the same thing: “Impeach President Yoon.” Despite the cold, they sang and shouted with unwavering determination. This shared goal and the sudden sense of social solidarity fueled their resilience and kept their hope alive.
Many of those I spoke to expressed certainty that impeachment was inevitable. “If it doesn’t happen in the second week, it would in the third or the fourth” one protester said. They trusted that democracy, fought for by their parents, would not crumble so easily. For them, the fight was not just for the present but to defend the sacrifices made in the past.
What Next?
On Saturday, December 14th, 11 days after the infamous declaration, President Yoon was impeached with 204 votes in favor out of 300. The result means that 29 lawmakers outside the opposition party, including some from his party, voted against him. I was in the crowd, just meters away from the National Assembly, when the results were announced. Watching thousands of people scream, jump, and even cry made it clear how much this was important to them. The hope made it to reality and turned into happiness in front of my eyes. A few seconds later, everybody started singing K-pop songs homogeneously.
Another touching moment was to see members of the parliament coming out of the assembly about 100 meters from the door and turning on their flash in sync with the rhythm of the music, showing their support to the crowd that stood still for several days until that moment.
However, the process is not over. To finalize the impeachment, South Korea’s Constitutional Court must approve or reject the vote within six months. People are still waiting, holding onto hope that their demand will be realized. Protests continue every day, and the momentum built over the 11 intense days is likely to persist until the final decision.
While we can’t yet say that hope has fully turned into happiness, the people remain confident.
Being in Seoul during this political turmoil has made me realize how having freedom is a privilege we often take for granted in the Netherlands. Martial law was about to erase many of their rights, and witnessing the fear, anger, and hope in their eyes deeply touched me.
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