President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea declared emergency martial law on Tuesday night, then reversed himself hours later as thousands of protesters flooded the streets, capping an extraordinary night of tumult in the deeply divided country.
The threat of military rule had brought political chaos to one of America’s closest allies in Asia and carried echoes of South Korea’s postwar years of military rule and political violence.
But Mr. Yoon’s gambit appeared to quickly backfire, leaving his political future uncertain and the opposition baying for his impeachment.
His announcement imposing martial law, at 10:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, had immediately raised questions over whether the president could commandeer such a highly developed industrialized democracy.
Before dawn on Wednesday, those questions appeared to be answered.
The National Assembly quickly passed a resolution demanding an end to martial law, and Mr. Yoon backed down, saying he would lift his emergency declaration just five and a half hours after he had issued it.
Martial law was formally lifted at a cabinet meeting early Wednesday.
Mr. Yoon did not immediately comment on his political future, only reiterating his demand that the opposition stop using its parliamentary majority to “paralyze” his government.
But opposition lawmakers demanded that he step down, calling his martial law “unconstitutional” and a “failed coup.”
The National Assembly can impeach the president if more than two-thirds of the Assembly vote for it. Mr. Yoon’s party controls 108 seats in the 300-member legislature. Thousands of people have held weekend rallies in downtown Seoul in recent months, calling for Mr. Yoon’s impeachment, accusing him of incompetence, corruption and abuse of power
The martial law declaration on Tuesday night had sent thousands of protesters into the frigid night, gathering at the National Assembly building and chanting for the president’s arrest and removal.
Lawmakers, in a swift rebuke of the president’s order, then adopted a resolution demanding that martial law be lifted. The South Korean act on martial law states that if the assembly demands an end to it, the president must lift it “without delay.”
As part of the imposition of martial law, Mr. Yoon had named Army Gen. Park An-soo as the martial law commander. The general had issued a decree that “all news media and publications are under the control of martial law command,” and warned that those who spread “fake news” could be arrested without a court warrant. The general also banned “all political activities,” including political party activities, citizens’ rallies and labor activities.
But in a sign of the weak support for military rule, dissent quickly emerged from within Mr. Yoon’s own political party. Han Dong-hoon, the head of the People Power Party, said in a post on social media that the president’s “martial law declaration is wrong” and that he would “work with the citizens to stop it.” In an act of defiance against the president, Mr. Han shook hands with Lee Jae-myung, the main opposition leader, when lawmakers gathered to vote against martial law.
“We cannot let the military rule this country,” Mr. Lee said. “President Yoon Seok Yeol has betrayed the people. President Yoon’s illegal declaration of emergency martial law is null and void.” In January, Mr. Lee was stabbed in the neck by a would-be assassin, raising fears of rising political extremism.
In his nationally televised speech on Tuesday night announcing martial law, Mr. Yoon denounced the opposition for repeatedly using their majority in the National Assembly to impeach members of his cabinet and block the passage of his government’s budget plans.
“Our National Assembly has become a den of criminals and is attempting to paralyze the nation’s judicial administration system through legislative dictatorship and overthrow the liberal democracy system,” he said. “The National Assembly, which should have been the foundation of free democracy, has become a monster that destroys it.”
It was the first time a South Korean president had declared martial law since military dictatorship ended in the country in the late 1980s. Soldiers wearing helmets and carrying long guns pushed back against people who tried to enter the National Assembly building.
Mr. Yoon, a former prosecutor whose campaigns against graft brought him to national prominence, was narrowly elected president in March 2022 on a conservative, business-friendly domestic agenda.
The main milestones of his presidency have come in the domain of foreign policy, including forging a close relationship with the Biden administration, symbolized by a White House visit in April 2023, in which Mr. Yoon charmed the American president, singing his rendition of “American Pie.”
The relationship with South Korea is critical for the United States, not least because nearly 30,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea.
Mr. Yoon has also been a willing partner in building a coalition against China and has played a role in the U.S. support for Ukraine by shipping artillery shells to the United States to replenish its stockpiles.
The president has prioritized sanctions and military deterrence against North Korea and led a diplomatic breakthrough with Japan, dropping demands that Japanese companies compensate their Korean victims of forced labor during World War II and tightening military cooperation between South Korea and Japan.
Yet at home, Mr. Yoon’s presidency has been marked by near constant protests, political deadlock and a crackdown on press freedoms.
Elections in April, framed by the opposition as a referendum on his tenure, were seen as a sweeping denunciation of Mr. Yoon, with opposition parties coming close to achieving a supermajority in Parliament, riding on a wave of anger over a housing affordability crisis and signs of democratic backsliding.
Some of Mr. Yoon’s strongest support comes from right-wing and elderly South Koreans who have rallied to defend him as a bulwark against those seen as conciliatory toward North Korea and its communist rule, a Cold War framing that still resonates in the country.
Mr. Yoon’s domestic agenda has been stymied by the political deadlock, a prolonged strike by doctors and allegations of corruption involving his wife, Kim Keon Hee.
On the streets of Seoul, those who protested against the martial law declaration said they were both incredulous and angry.
“At first, I thought he was joking,” Yun Gi-dang, 60, said of the president’s martial law declaration. Ms. Yun said she had grown up as part of a generation that spent its youth fighting for the country’s democratization. And now the president was “turning back the clock,” she said.
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