Two sides: Protesters holding placards during a rally to mark the first anniversary of the martial law declaration.
President Lee Jae-Myung said there is still work to be done to address the fallout of the failed martial law bid by his predecessor a year ago, and the country needs to ensure the perpetrators were brought to justice.
Marking the first anniversary of the shock announcement of martial law on Dec 3, 2024, Lee said former president Yoon Suk-Yeol’s action had threatened an irreparable setback to the country, but the people rose up and stopped the military with their bare hands.
“The recklessness of those who tried to destroy constitutional order and even plan a war all for their personal ambitions must be brought to justice,” he said.
“The Dec 3 coup d’etat was not just a crisis for democracy in one country. If democracy in South Korea collapsed, it would have meant a setback... for world democracy.”
Yoon’s martial law declaration plunged the country into months of political turmoil, just as US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on global trading partners rattled South Korea’s export-reliant economy.
The conservative leader was later ousted and Lee, who lost to Yoon in a 2022 presidential poll, won a snap election in June with a mandate to steer the country out of the shock of martial law, as those who were accused of being involved were arrested and tried.
Since coming to office, Lee has managed to strike a US tariff deal after two summits with Trump, but there remain deep fissures in society and concerns over whether conservatives feel they are being persecuted.
Lee warned that reforming the country following the martial law crisis would be painful and time-consuming.
“But just as treating cancer by removing the cancer cells that have taken root deep inside the body, it cannot be completed that easily,” he said.
A supporter of Yoon holding up a red banner reading ‘Yoon, Again!’ in front of the National Assembly in Seoul. — Agencies
Yoon has remained defiant, saying martial law was necessary to alert the public to a “national crisis”. He says Lee’s Democratic Party, which controlled parliament at the time, was threatening to collapse democracy.
“It was different from martial law in the past that persecuted the people,” Yoon said in written comments to Japan’s Yomiuri published yesterday, insisting that he had complied with parliament’s demand to lift the decree.
The late-night declaration was overturned within hours by a majority parliamentary vote backed by Lee’s Democrats and some members of Yoon’s conservative party.
On trial for insurrection and facing life imprisonment or even potentially the death penalty, Yoon has denied ordering the arrest of opposition lawmakers and political enemies and argued the martial law declaration caused no harm.
Former Cabinet members, military officers and lawmakers are also among those on trial or under investigation.
Lee said he will propose designating Dec 3 a national holiday to celebrate the role of the people in quelling martial law, adding that he believed they deserved to be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Lee will join a citizens’ march to mark the martial law anniversary. The march will pass parliament, where soldiers and police were deployed on the night of Dece 3, 2024, to try to shut down the chamber. — Reuters
