The soldiers break open the door with a crash, then are suddenly blind. Someone has pointed a fire extinguisher at them, the white powder covers the narrow corridor in a cloud. Then the flashbulb begins.
Behind an improvised barricade of tables, dozens of people point their cameras at the soldiers and continually fire – the white cloud intensifies the effect. Without a direct view of their opponents, the troops are forced to retreat.
It is scenes like these that spread on social media on Wednesday and made it clear what courage and creativity the democracy has South Korea the night before just a hair a military coup had thwarted.
Yoon wanted to have the leader of his own party arrested
The president’s approach could be different Yoon Suk-yeol cannot explain the complete surprise on Tuesday evening at 10:30 p.m. local time martial law declared – to, as he said, protect his country “from the communist troops of North Korea”.
“At first I really thought that the North Koreans were attacking,” a South Korean told KURIER. “When I understood what it was really about, I was completely perplexed.”
Yoon’s statement was a pretext to attack the democratically elected opposition, which had blocked his government with its parliamentary majority. to be arrested together with all other political opponents. Yoon is even said to have sent a special military police squad to Han Dong-hoon to arrest the leader of his own party.
The fact that this didn’t work is due to the people who risked everything that night to stop Yoon.
67-year-old President of Parliament jumped over the fence
An Woo Won-sik for example, the opposition parliamentary chairman, who immediately recognized the danger and raced to parliament in just twelve minutes after the president’s televised speech. He reached it before the army and jumped over the fence – at the age of 67.
But Woon was not alone: a total of six parties made it 190 of the 300 South Korean MPs to Parliament in time. Enough to declare martial law in a nightly vote around 1:30 a.m to be canceled again.
But it was also due to the thousands of civilians who gave their representatives the time they needed. They surrounded the parliament building, blocked military vehicles, built barricades out of furniture inside and used all available means to keep the soldiers from advancing.
Civilians blocked the doors of Parliament from the inside to prevent soldiers from arresting the MPs.
In this charged situation it was also because that none of those involved resorted to violence. A video shows a woman grabbing a soldier’s weapon – he frees himself, pushes her away, but doesn’t pull the trigger. Just one spark would have been enough to turn a historic night into a tragic one.
The end is known: Yoon buckled under the pressure and lifted martial law around 4:30 a.m. after just six hours. This also ended his political career. On Wednesday, the justice minister and the president’s entire staff resigned, and the rest of the cabinet also offered their resignation.
What happens next: South Korea’s ruling party rejects impeachment of president
In a ceremonial act, all opposition parties jointly submitted motions of no confidence against Yoon and Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who is said to have proposed the plan to declare martial law.
To remove the president, a two-thirds majority would be needed, or at least eight votes from Yoon’s own People’s Power Party (PPP). The ruling People Power Party (PPP) wants to keep Yoon Suk Yeol in office, even though it rejected his declaration of martial law. She announced that she would vote against the impeachment proceedings brought by the opposition Democratic Party, whose chances of success are therefore slim.
On Wednesday, thousands in Seoul called for Yoon’s immediate resignation. But there is a third possibility for an abrupt end to his presidency: Yoon had declared martial law single-handedly, without prior coordination from his ministers. That was unconstitutional – the Supreme Court has already opened an investigation.
Possible foreign policy consequences
The opposition leader is seen as the biggest winner from the developments Lee Jae-Myungparty leader of the Democratic Party (DP). On Wednesday he presented himself on the steps of the parliament building as the face of the resistance – and is likely to have won many votes for the future.
Opposition leader Lee Jae-Myung (middle) presented himself on the steps of the parliament building on Wednesday as the protector of South Korean democracy. His party already has the most MPs and is likely to have gained new voters as a result of the crisis.
A transfer of power from Yoon’s PPP to the DP would far-reaching foreign policy consequences entail. Yoon was also so unpopular before the coup attempt because of his diplomatic approach Japan approacheda tough course towards North Korea drove and the Financially supported Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia had.
Lee and his DP, on the other hand, stand for an opposite course: Under them, South Korea could distance itself from its neighbor Japan again, seek exchanges with North Korea in order to reduce tensions and withhold further aid to Ukraine in order to force it to the negotiating table.
