Since its founding on August 15, 1948, South Korea declared martial law 10 times in response to different crises such as the Yeosu-Suncheon rebellion and the Korean War. The news agency Yonhap broadcast videos of south korean soldiers with a strong presence in the streets and breaking into the National Assembly building.
What does martial law establish?
Martial law is a measure used only in emergency situations that grant exceptional powers to the Executive Branch. This legislation allows limit constitutional rights and deploy the armed forces in the streets.
In detail, said legislation grants the Armed Forces a temporary government during the given emergency. Furthermore, it can restrict fundamental rights such as freedom of expression, assembly and movement.
Thus, the suspension of the usual civil rights and can include the application of military justice to the civilian public. On a practical level, it means that during the period in which Martial Law is in force – in South Korea it was only 6 hours -, arrests can be carried out without a legal entity carrying out any type of control.
The South Korean measure expressly excepts “ordinary innocent citizens“, excluding “anti-state and subversive forces.”
Under South Korean law, however, legislators cannot be stopped by the command of martial law and the government has to lift it if the majority of the national assembly requests it in a vote. This finally happened because unanimity and the measure was repealed.
Why did the conflict break out?
This decision occurs within the framework of the debate between the People Power Party of Yoon and his main opposition party, the Democratic Partyabout the conflict and discussion of the budget bill for next year.
South_Korea_President_Yoon_Suk_Yeol_portrait.jpg
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“Our National Congress became a refuge criminalsa den of legislative dictatorship that seeks to paralyze the judicial and administrative systems and topple our liberal democratic order,” Yoon said in response to last week’s approval by deputies of the opposition’s budget plan.
He south korean president continued to target the opposition, which makes up the majority in the 300-member Parliament, classifying it as “anti-state forces what they try overthrow the regime“.
The word of the United States on the conflict
Shortly before the president’s final decision was the lifting of martial lawthe spokesman for the US State Department – one of South Korea’s main economic and military partners, Vedant Patel, had said that he hoped that the incidents in the Asian nation would be resolved peacefully, respecting the decision of the South Korean National Assembly.
“We want this to be resolved peacefully in accordance with the rule of law and, without a doubt, such a vote in the legislature would be consistent with this approach,” Patel said in a press conference. In addition, the US representative confirmed the information provided by the White House that the South Korean Executive Branch did not inform him of the decision. to the North American country.
Source: Ambito
