The Martial Law Declared in South Korea, Dec '24

On my way to work,

I received a KakaoTalk message from my younger brother, who lives in Korea.

It was a sentence I had never seen in my 45 years of life:

“Hey sis, President Yoon just declared martial law.”

At first, I thought my brother must have been misled by fake news.

To verify, I quickly messaged some colleagues at work, but they didn’t seem to know anything about it either.

A few seconds later, their responses came in:

“It’s true!! It really is martial law!!”

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Unbelievable.

Did North Korea invade?

Or was there a massive earthquake in Pohang, where tremors are frequent?

Martial law is something declared in a national emergency, right?

So I immediately turned to YouTube to check for any wartime situation or natural disaster.

But what I found in President Yoon’s statement was nothing about public safety or national security.

Instead, it was filled with intense resentment and blame toward the opposition party.

He claimed that their obstruction and interference had thrown the government into a state of emergency,

—leaving him no choice but to declare martial law as president.

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As someone with family and parents living in Korea, I couldn’t wrap my head around this.

There was no war (no North Korean invasion), no natural disaster threatening the safety of the people

—how could someone in the role of president,

declare martial law without even his advisors fully understanding the implications?

On top of that, South Korea has a painful history tied to the word “martial law,”

—filled with bloodshed and trauma.

How could something with such gravity be handled so casually, as if flipping a switch on a manual?

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A few hours later, martial law was lifted. (Not sure if this was true news, hopefully it was)

But calling it a “brief episode” feels far too dismissive.

In those few hours, the president seemed to have crossed a bridge he cannot uncross.

It feels like he played a card that should never have been touched.

Check out other posting on this Blog

Olive Young official Global app

South Korea President Yoon Suk-yeol Declares Martial Law