The last time South Korea was under martial law, Chung Chin-ook was in his first year of high school, more than 40 years ago. His home city of Gwangju rose up to protest oppressive measures by the military junta, only to face a brutal, bloody crackdown.
Late on Tuesday night, those memories raced through the now 60-year-old lawmaker’s head as he scaled the fence surrounding the National Assembly. He and other members rushed to the chamber to nullify President Yoon Suk Yeol’s imposition of martial law, evading the police officials who stood guard at the gates.
“I immediately thought of 1980, and the fear and desperation we felt,” said Chung, one of the 190 members of the assembly who voted unanimously against martial law early Wednesday. “It didn’t seem real that we were undergoing this again after 40 years.”
From inside the chamber, lawmakers nervously watched live footage as special forces troops landed in helicopters on the lawn and broke windows to enter the building, Chung said by telephone. Aides blockaded the entrance to buy time as Chung and his colleagues went through the procedures for the vote.
He said the colour of the troops’ fatigues brought back memories of the soldiers who kicked and slapped him and his brothers at the start of the Gwangju crackdown, telling them to go home. Even though it seemed possible that this new standoff, like the one in 1980, could lead to bloodshed, he said it felt important to take a stand.
“There was an indescribable fear and rage, and the feeling that we cannot lose this time,” he said. “Back then, I was too young to fight.”
Lee Jae-eui was a 24-year-old college student when the Gwangju killings occurred. He served 10 months in prison after being arrested for illegal assembly and distributing information in violation of the martial law that was then in effect.
At his home in Gwangju, Lee was awakened late on Tuesday night by repeated messages on his phone. He rose in time to watch a live broadcast of the military entering the National Assembly. He said he watched with a mix of disbelief and dismay. “It was total déjà-vu,” said Lee, now 68. “After democratisation, I didn’t think this would happen again in our lifetime.”
He said the people who lived through democratisation were intimately familiar with the terror that martial law and military rule can bring. South Korea has gone through too much to allow that history to repeat itself, he said.
“The people know this is not lawful,” he said.
PM waits in wings
If Yoon quits or is removed from office then, under the Constitution, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will step in to perform presidential duties.
Yoon, a conservative, came into office after winning the 2022 presidential election by a threadbare margin, and appointed Han as the Prime minister that year. It marked Han’s second time in that job; he had served under President Roh Moo-hyun, a liberal, from April 2007 to February 2008.
Han began his career as a civil servant in the early 1970s, working on trade and industrial policy for decades. He received a doctorate in economics from Harvard in 1984. From 2009 to 2012, Han was South Korea’s ambassador to the United States.
Yoon has been in a bitter standoff with the Opposition, led by the progressive Democratic Party, for almost his entire tenure as President. The Democratic Party inflicted a crushing defeat on his People Power Party in the parliamentary elections held in April, leaving him on the verge of being a lame duck.
The Democratic Party has said it would begin impeachment proceedings if Yoon does not step down immediately. The President is impeached if two-thirds of the 300-member legislature vote in favour of doing so. Han would act as the President until impeachment proceedings conclude.
Under South Korean law, once the National Assembly has impeached the President, the matter could go to the Constitutional Court. If the court upholds the impeachment, the President would be removed from office.
