South Korea Declares Martial Law

What the hell?

I’m a pretty well informed person, I read The Economist and the BBC on a daily basis. And while I’m aware that South Korea has some issues, like a real problem with gender equality and a plummeting birth rate, I certainly haven’t been hearing about anything that would remotely warrant martial law.

Does anyone have any insight into this? Is it as frightening as it sounds? It’s so new that the only news available is what I posted- no real details on what’s going on and what it means…

The BBC have it as breaking news on their app/website. There’s some background about how unpopular the President and his wife have been.
Military have taken over the parliament building and not allowing anyone in.

I’m so glad we live in such an age of global peace and stability.

From the Constitution:

Since the opposition has a clear assembly majority, it would seem impossible for this to stand legally. So not allowing them in the parliament building sounds very bad.

I think the term for this is: Constitutional Coup.

I do not know much about South Korea, but, in general, the ultimate guardian, or destroyer, of democracy is a nation’s military. So far they seem to be on the side of the president.

So the presidents wife accepted a gift of a handbag and that ultimately led to this? A handbag? Oscar Wilde will be turning in his grave.

The constitution says one thing but the barrel of a gun seems to say the opposite right now.

Where the hell did THAT come from?

Isn’t the military there mainly made of draftees? Armies like that that usually don’t go for the political stuff - draftees are often very reluctant to shoot their own people.

Or as Francis Fukuyama would say, “… the end of history as such … That is, the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.”

Stranger

The lawmakers have voted to block the martial law decree:

Live updates (CNN):

Looks like a classic Alberto Fujimori style “Autogolpe”

They may not have been told anything. Officer shows up, says, “Get in the truck, we’re deploying for a mission!” By the time they realize they’re at Parliament, it’s too late, so just follow orders.

At some point, they’ll clue in that this isn’t a normal deployment, and will have to make a choice, but there’s no saying how long that will take.

For South Korea, martial law also brings all kinds of negative connotations from the 1950s-1980s era. The president must have known what bad tones/vibes the term would bring, yet invoked it anyway.

You think soldiers don’t have smartphones? They know what’s going on. They have social media. They’ve spoken with their families, who have their own strong feelings about things. The next few hours are going to be interesting.

Wikipedia page on it; the general in command has issued a pretty chilling order:

I hope @Monty is okay.

The army won’t be shooting at anyone unless there are civilian protests. Under the stated conditions of martial law, this would almost certainly have to be spontaneous. So it’s as much up to the person on the street as it is up to the military (my opinion, of course).

I hope President Biden is on the phone telling that idiot to call this off.

Lame duck.

True. I’m seeing comments elsewhere that the military has said they are waiting for the president’s word, but haven’t seen the actual source of that info.

Soldiers are drilled and conditioned to obedience, including shooting anyone their officers tell them to shoot. This is more or less exactly why the USA originally had next to no standing army and enacted the Second Amendment, so we wouldn’t go through this Cromwell stuff.

And I am sure the president elect and his team are taking good note of how this is done and what happens next.

Yeah… speaking as a former soldier, I can tell you that that’s pretty much bullshit.

Also, in the current scenario President Yoon is Charles I. Cromwell commanded the parliamentarian forces.

I do sometimes wonder if we’re embarking on one of those times in history where the whole world goes through a massive upheaval. Everything just seems to be realigning very quickly.

If, 20 years ago, I told you overwhelming numbers of union members would be voting for an overtly anti-union person and party, what would you have said?