File:Korea-Seoul-Blue House (Cheongwadae) Reception Center 0688&9-07 cropped.jpg

Photo source: Wikipedia Commons. The Blue House, South Korea’s White House

I know not everyone around the world keeps up with Korean news, but I was getting messages from American friends and family wanting to know if I was alright and advising me that NOW IS THE TIME TO COME HOME,  so I thought I would just put it out there that I am fine, it’s fine, everything is fine.

And if you’re like what the heck is she talking about, well, last night around 11pm, South Korean President Yoon declared martial law across all of South Korea. I had been just about to go to sleep when I saw a message about curfews (?) and military joining police on the streets (?) and foreigners needing to declare their whereabouts (?), etc. WTH??

There is no danger, nothing happened to prompt this declaration…it’s not NORTH KOREA, as I’m sure everyone thought. It was just the President trying to regain control of the Parliament (essentially like the US House of Congress). The current Korean President is in the People Power Party (PPP) (more like our Republican party, conservative, right-leaning)…but the majority of the current Parliament is in the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) (like our Democratic party, more liberal and left-leaning). So the Parliament has been blocking some of the things that President Yoon wants to do…and today they were going to vote to impeach Yoon’s like Minister of Defense (I don’t think that’s the name here but my mind is blanking)…so in an attempt to a) stop that impeachment and b) regain control, he declared martial law.

Now, those seem to be the real reasons…but what he SAID he was doing, was protecting the people of South Korea, by claiming that the opposing party (DPK) are North Korea sympathizers and communists…who could ultimately aid NK in an attack on South Korea. So essentially he was taking the stance of I Am Saving South Korea by Taking Charge.

The miltary was called out and tried to get in and take control of the National Assembly building…but the brave Parliament members and Korean citizens got there just in time and fought back and literally held the soldiers off…allowing them to get a vote in. Of the 300 members of Parliament, 190 got there toot suite and voted unanimously to repeal the martial law…and by 6am this morning, President Yoon made another announcement that oh, alright, he would repeal the martial law (because he had to!).

The whole thing was over in about 7 hours…from the President’s first address at 11pm…to his final address at 6am. The military have gone home. But the people are still surrounding the National Assembly building, calling for both the impeachment and imprisonment of President Yoon.

I am not well-versed in politics, especially not the long history of Korean politics…this is just my understanding of what went down last night.

What martial law would have meant for us (me) here:

  • All media and publications will be subject to Martial Law Command control
  • Strikes and gatherings that incite social unrest are prohibited
  • 6pm curfews
  • Foreigners having trouble leaving the country
  • Foreigners having to like check-in with their whereabouts to the government
  • And my personal favorite: all striking medical personnel must return to their positions immediately. Yes, doctors are still on strike from February…and this would allow him to say look, not only did I protect the Korean people from North Korea, I also ended the doctors’ strike! 

There are probably other things, but…you get the drift. Martial Law: It’s Not a Good Thing.

And I would imagine most Koreans would have felt especially shocked and terrified to hear this news after the last case of martial law in the 1980s, The Gwangju Uprising. In a nutshell, South Korea was under a dictatorship at the time, college students in Gwangju, South Korea were protesting, the military was sent in and between 600-2,300  (depending whose story/side you believe) students and citizens were killed (beaten, tortured, raped, etc). Then the citizens got involved to try to protect the students and their community, and it was just a big bloodbath. Bad. Not Good. And the military dictator at the time called this whole disaster “a riot instigated by communist sympathizers and rioters acting under the behest of the North Korean government,” which sounds disturbingly similar to President Yoon’s accusations last night. Adult Korean citizens would have lived through that time and I’m sure this event was a shockingly unpleasant reminder (to put it mildly).

So, this was my layperson’s explanation of what occured last night and early this morning. And all to say, I am fine, everything’s fine, it’s all fine.

Note: if any of my explanations are incorrect, please let me know, I want to learn.

PS: sorry, no pictures.