Martial Law, Impeachments, Protests…What Was Going on in South Korea?
National Assembly Building, Seoul, South Korea. Photo by Annika Deshpande, September 2025.
On December 3, I was spending the night in my dorm room in Seoul, South Korea, when my phone suddenly lit up with messages and calls from friends and family back home. Opening them I saw variations of the same message: “OMG, are you okay? I just saw the news!”
The news? I open my phone and do a quick google search and read the headlines. Sure enough, South Korea was under martial law. It was shocking and almost impossible to believe. Martial law is when civilian rule is substituted by military authority and typically occurs during times of war, rebellion, natural disasters, or other types of unrest. Yet none of that was happening in South Korea.
The next couple of hours were filled with confused messages back and forth, as both local Koreans and foreigners attempted to understand what was happening. Then, at around 4 a.m., the martial law was lifted as abruptly as it had been imposed. By morning, life resumed as normal. Local South Koreans went to work and me and the other students went to our classes.
While the declaration was short lived, it plunged the country into a political crisis that continues to this day. South Korea now faces an uncertain future as a nation that once prided itself on its rapid democratization appears to have backslid into the first major political crisis since the 1980s.
What happened after Martial Law was declared?
South Korea and the rest of the world watched stunned as President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law citing the “threat of North Korean forces.” For the next 6 hours scenes of chaos erupted outside of the National Assembly building. Crowds gathered around the assembly building to protest the declaration as truckloads of armed police forces came to monitor the situation and stop lawmakers from entering the building. Scuffles broke out between the police and crowds. Lawmakers from the opposition party went through great lengths, even as far as climbing fences to get into the buildings to overturn the decision. Around 1 am the lawmakers voted to lift the law and at 4 am, President Yoon agreed to honor the parliaments’ decision and lift the martial law. In the coming weeks, South Korea saw multiple changes in leadership, impeachment charges, and many days of protests and clashes.
Following this, mass protests erupted as the opposition and the public called for Yoon’s impeachment. Initially, the impeachment vote failed after members of Yoon’s party believed he should have a chance to resign. However, Yoon refused to resign, and firmly maintained that he was acting in the country’s best interests. Therefore, eventually lawmakers from Yoon’s own party joined in impeaching him. Yoon also became the first sitting leader to be detained from criminal questioning as he has been accused of initiating an insurrection. After Yoon’s impeachment, prime minister Han Duck-Soo served as the acting president, only to be impeached two weeks later! Han’s impeachment came after he refused to appoint three-justices to the nine-member constitutional court. Han believed that this would overstate his authority but he accepted the impeachment and stepped down. This move only furthered the political chaos and uncertainty in the country. The move to impeach Han almost feels as if the opposition party went on a power trip, refusing to let anyone stand in the way of their goal to officially remove Yoon from office. Yet if this is true, then it means the political stability of the country was disregarded. As the chaos continued to ensue, the Korean won continued to plummet until it reached the lowest level to the dollar since 2009.
Yet the drama does not stop there.
At the end of December, a court ordered the arrest of Yoon for his attempt to declare martial law. The arrest warrant came after Yoon repeatedly refused summonings to be questioned by the court. However, when the police arrived to try to arrest Yoon from his home, they were met with a six hour long standoff against hordes of his supporters. The police eventually gave up the arrest attempt which kicked off a month-long standoff between Yoon’s supporters and security forces and the police, while Yoon remained holed up in his home. These protests were vastly different then protests earlier in December, which called for Yoon’s impeachment. The fervent of the supporters also seemed to mirror the behaviors seen in the US during the past election. Finally, after a month, Yoon was arrested to the dismay of the thousands who had gathered around his house. His supporters were so upset by the arrest that they broke into the Seoul Western District Court and began to riot.
What does the rest of the world think?
This crisis also dealt a significant blow to South Korea on the global stage. When President Yoon first took office, he made strengthening Korea’s position internationally a major priority. However, after this debacle, several of South Korea’s allies expressed disappointment over what they perceived as a restriction on democratic principles. The United States expressed serious concern about the situation, while Japanese lawmakers canceled a planned visit to Seoul.
This is significant because President Yoon had been advocating for a stronger trilateral partnership among the U.S., Japan, and South Korea to form a strong force in the region with their sense of democratic ideals being the binding force. However, South Korea’s apparent political instability left these key allies unsettled and undermined the image of cohesion that had been projected to deter China and North Korea. Reuters reported that Duyeon Kim,the Center for a New American Security, said that Yoon’s international reputation as a symbol of democracy had been ruined.
This miscalculation not only damaged Yoon’s political career, but minimized South Korea's credibility on the world stage. With a weakened image of unity and stability in South Korea comes the increased threat of North Korea. The DPRK mocked President Yoon’s declaration and likened him to a “dictator from decades ago”. While this is rather ironic coming from one of the most oppressive regimes in the world, it underscores the controversy sparked by the declaration.
Why was Martial Law so controversial?
The declaration of martial law was not only entirely unexpected but also remains a very sensitive issue for the nation. The last time martial law was declared was in 1980 by the nation’s last authoritarian leader Chun Doo-hwan. However, the degree was met by protests from students in the city of Gwangju. In response Chun sent the military to violently crack down on the protests. In what eventually became known as The Gwangju Uprising, where over 200 people had been killed in the violent protests and represented the nation’s turning point into eventually becoming a democracy seven years later.
Therefore, for the country, especially in the city of Gwangju, the declaration felt like a sharp sting and brought back memories to the country’s dark past. South Korea has rapidly progressed both economically and democratically. From 1987 when the last authoritarian dictator, the nation has grown to be a highly functioning democracy with an increasing global presence thanks to the global Hallyu wave. However, did this crisis highlight the flaws in the nation’s democracy, or perhaps its strength? South Korea's democracy is in no way perfect. Many presidents have been jailed or faced corruption accusations. President Yoon himself was extremely unpopular and faced significant backlash over his handling of bribery accusations involving his wife. This does not reflect a very strong democracy. When martial law was first declared, many people feared this was a reflection of the country’s brittle democracy. However, the martial law might have actually highlighted the strength of the country’s democracy. While the president’s last ditch power grab failed, the citizens rapidly mobilized to fight for their democracy. In a matter of hours and then for the next couple of days, protests erupted as the South Koreans protested the decree, refusing to give up the democracy they had long struggled for. Perhaps it was the arduous nature in which the country became a democracy that has made the citizens hold on to it so strongly. Yet while the citizens may be willing to fight and hold their political executives accountable, it does not diminish the fact that many of the country’s leaders are still riddled with corruption. As South Korea continues to cement its place in the world stage, perhaps it needs to look inwards at its political leaders to ensure that this type of instability does not happen again.
So why did Yoon do it?
In seeing all of the aftermath—the political crisis in Seoul, the potential criminal charges leveraged against Yoon, the loss of credibility on the world stage—what made President Yoon utilize such an extreme measure? And did he not see the obvious consequences that would emerge in doing so? Perhaps he was driven by desperation. Yoon’s presidency was riddled with various problems from the ongoing doctor strikes, various corruption charges against members of cabinets, and investigations into his wife. Relations with North Korea are at an all time low and most of his domestic policies were being blocked by the opposition party. The situation was dire indeed for President Yoon. Yet declaring martial law during times of peace is simply unheard of and it propelled a thriving nation into political disarray. The past month has been embroiled in confusion and chaos. The situation has negatively impacted the value of the won and lowered global confidence in South Korea’s political structure. While it exposed the weaknesses in the nation’s leadership, it also showed the willingness of the citizens to speak up and protect their sovereignty and freedom. Therefore, despite the current situation, South Korea will continue to forge its place in the global stage.