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December 3, 2024 for an astonishing six hours today, South Korea underwent an attempted self coup by its unpopular president Yoon Suk Yeol, only to see the South Korean people force him to back down as they reasserted the strength of their democracy. In an emergency address at nearly 11 o'clock last night, local time, Yun announced that he was declaring martial law in South Korea for the first time since 1980, when Special Forces under a military dictatorship attacked pro democracy activists in the city of Gwangju, leaving about 200 people dead or missing. South Koreans ended military rule in their country in 1987, writing a new constitution that made South Korea a republic. Yun claimed he had to declare martial law because his political opponents were sympathizing with communist North Korea. It was a thin pretext. A member of the conservative People's Party, Yun was elected to a five year presidential term in 2022 after a misogynistic campaign fueled by young men who saw equal rights for women, whose average monthly wage is 67.7 that of a man, according to the BBC's Laura Bicker, as reverse discrimination, that is taking away their own rights and opportunities. Before his election, Yun had no experience in the national assembly, and once he was in office, his popularity slid to record lows. In legislative elections held last April, voters crushed Yun's party, giving opposition parties 192 of 300 seats in the National Assembly. The legislature fought with Yun over his budget and launched a number of corruption investigations into Yun's allies as well as his wife. And so Yun declared martial law, bringing the media under his control and banning political activities. False propaganda gatherings that incite social unrest and strikes. Police officers formed a blockade around the national assembly and helicopters landed on the roof to prevent lawmakers from getting inside to overturn Yoon's declaration. The South Korean people reacted immediately. Reporting from Seoul, Jon Yoon of the New York Times recounted the story of a real estate agent who watched President Yoon's speech, got in his car and drove for an hour to get to the National Assembly. The man told journalist Yoon, I thought the end has come, so I came out. The president of a country has exerted his power by force, and its people have come out to protest that we have to remove him from power. From this point on, he's in a position where he has to come down. Editor of the Verge Sarah Jeong, who works out of the US and does not cover South Korean politics, happened to be working in Seoul this week and was on site after a night of drinking, giving an informed and honest account of what she was seeing the crowd is a pretty even mix of young people and the older folks, mostly men who would have been young during the dictatorship. I heard tanks were here, but I haven't seen one yet. Old men swearing how dare the military come here. Michelle Yihee Lee Washington Post TOKYO Seoul bureau chief reported that the national assembly managed to pull together a majority of its members, 190 of 300, in about two and a half hours to participate in a unanimous vote to overturn Yoon's emergency declaration of martial law. That vote included members of his own party. Political commentator Adam Schwartz shared a video taken by the leader of South Korea's Democratic Party, Lee Chae Myong, as he climbed over the wall of the national assembly to vote against Yun's martial law declaration. Other videos showed people in the streets boosting legislators over the walls for the vote. Yet another video showed South Korean soldiers trying to get into the national assembly during the voting, thwarted by people wielding a fire extinguisher and flashes from cameras. While the law said Yoon had to abide by the legislators vote, it was not clear whether Yoon would do as the law required. About six hours after he had declared martial law, Yun bowed to the national assembly and the popular will and lifted his declaration. Yun has been widely condemned, and South Koreans from all parties, including his own, are calling for his resignation or impeachment. Rafael Rashid of the Guardian reported today that on the morning after the attempted coup, South Koreans are bewildered and sad for the older generation who fought on the streets against military dictatorships, martial law equals dictatorship, not 21st century Korea. The younger generation is embarrassed that he has ruined their country's reputation. People are baffled. For the rest of the world, though, South Koreans immediate and aggressive response to a man trying to take away their democratic rights is an inspiration. Among other things, it illustrates that for all the claims that autocracy can react to events more quickly than democracy can, in fact, autocrats are brittle. It is democracy that is determined and resilient. The events in Seoul also cemented the shift in social media from X to Blue sky, where news was breaking faster than anywhere else in a way that echoed what Twitter used to be. Since Twitter was a key site of democratic organizing until Elon Musk bought it and renamed it X. That shift is significant, and finally, the events in South Korea emphasize that for all people often look to larger than life figures to define our nations. Our history is in fact made up of regular people doing the best they can. Journalist Sarah Zhang found herself entirely unexpectedly in the middle of a couple and recognizing that she was, in a historic moment, snapped to work to do all she could to keep the rest of us informed. I'm blasted and hanging out in the weirdest scene because history happened at a deeply inconvenient hour, she wrote on blue sky. So it goes. When she finally went home, Zhang wrote, I expensed my cab ride home. I'm tired, so I put Korea coup down in the expense code. Field.
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Letters from an American was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dedham, MA. Recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.