South Korean President Yoon Seok Yeol declared that he would abolish martial law at a meeting of the South Korean government on December 4.
This was reported by the South Korean agency Yonhap.
The President said this during a live broadcast from the Office of the President: "The troops deployed to enforce martial law have been withdrawn."
UPD: South Koreaʼs government has backed the "plan to lift martial law" demanded by parliament. The office of the countryʼs prime minister reported that the proposal was approved at 04:30 local time. Martial law lasted for about six hours.
Yoon Seok Yeol declared martial law in the country on the night of December 3-4 to "protect the constitutional order". This happened for the first time since the 1980s. The reason was that the opposition Democratic Party of South Korea, which has a majority in the parliament, rejected the governmentʼs budget proposal and decided to impeach the state auditor and the chief prosecutor.
An hour later, South Koreaʼs parliament passed a resolution calling for martial law to be lifted. 190 MPs out of 190 who took part in the vote spoke in favour of the decision. There are only 300 MPs in South Korea, but only 190 of them were able to get into the parliament building, despite being surrounded by the military. The latter stormed the building of the National Assembly.
According to the South Korean Constitution, the president must cancel the martial law decree after a vote by the deputies.
When the parliamentarians adopted the resolution, people sang the national anthem and applauded in the streets. According to preliminary estimates, four thousand citizens gathered near the parliament building. Korean trade union flags could also be seen among the crowd. The head of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions Yang Kyung Soo, took to the podium and announced an indefinite general strike until President Yoon Seok Yeol resigns.
The leader of the opposition Democratic Party Park Chan Dae said that the South Korean president cannot escape accusations of treason and must "immediately resign". The Democratic Party won 184 seats out of 300 in the National Assembly in the April 2024 parliamentary elections, significantly weakening the countryʼs conservative President Yoon Seok-yeol.
- South Korean President Yoon Seok Yeol has been unpopular since taking office in 2022. An online petition for his resignation, which was submitted on June 20, 2024, gained more than 811 000 signatures in ten days.
- Yoon Seok Yeol has low approval ratings in the country, particularly due to rising food and housing prices, labor conflicts and a sharp drop in the birth rate. The presidentʼs reputation has also been under fire over a hidden camera video of First Lady Kim Keon Hee allegedly accepting a $2 200 Dior bag as a gift.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.