Democracy in crisis in South Korea
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Hi there, I'm Azadeh Moshiri. From the BBC World Service, this is The Global Story. Democracy under attack in South Korea. Tuesday night, President Yoon, a deeply unpopular leader, mired in scandal, made a huge gamble and declared martial law across the country.

In the space of hours, South Koreans suddenly found themselves wondering whether life as they knew it was about to change. In the West, South Korea is often seen as a rare beacon of freedom in a region marked by several authoritarian regimes. And yet, how well do we truly know South Korea?

With me today is Jake Kwan, one of our senior journalists in Seoul. Jake, walk me through this. Where were you when you first found out that something really significant was going on? So...

I was doing some late night email, some work, and then my phone notification went off. And I almost ignored it because it looked like something that shouldn't have happened. I could not make sense of it. It was actually a news app called Yonhap, which is the state news agency here. It said simply, breaking news.

President Yoon declares martial law. When I saw that, my first instinct was almost to ignore it because it made no sense to me. When I woke up that morning, I did not expect anything like this. It was just another day. And in fact, I was thinking, wow, this has been a slow news week. I think it was already past 10.30 p.m. A lot of people were in bed, in fact. So one of my colleagues messaged me and said, did you see that?

And soon more notifications started coming. When you have that, your heart sinks a little bit as a journalist. When you're getting multiple breaking news alerts, you know, in quick succession, you know something mad is happening. I realized that, OK, because it's happening in quick succession, there must be some kind of live televised broadcast happening. So I quickly looked up local media news broadcasts. And in fact, they were playing live President Yoon's speech.

This measure is necessary to safeguard our constitutional order of freedom. By the time I tuned in, he was talking about some North Korean forces, anti-state, words that didn't really make much sense to me. And eventually he said, yes, and this is why I'm declaring a martial law. I hereby declare an emergency martial law in order to defend the Free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces.

I was lost for words. Yeah. And only when it hit me, like my heart was sinking, I felt like a lump in my throat. And my hands, I realized my hands were shaking. And, you know, looking back, my voice is shaking a little bit too. I remember, yeah, calling my editor and saying,

Telling her, hey, I think the president of South Korea just declared martial law. And she said, can you tell me that one more time? And I said, I think the president of South Korea has just declared martial law. And she asked me, what does that mean? And I said, I don't know.

I cannot tell you because we're in the uncharted territory. In his speech, initial speech, he did not really explain what's going to happen. The only thing he said was that the reason he's declaring martial law, which is to drive out this anti-state forces, that he's taking this great step in

in order to save the country. So he was giving a lot of rationale, which didn't make a lot of sense. He concluded his speech saying, you know, pretty much calling on the public to trust him in these trying times. And what about your friends, your colleagues, even your family? Was anyone getting in touch with you? My father called me and he said, Jake, what are you doing? And I said, oh, sorry, I'm on my way to the National Assembly. He said, why are you going there? I said, well, I need to do the report. And he said, please be safe. It's not safe out there. You don't know what these people will do.

I mean, my father grew up in the era of, you know, the Gwangju Massacre, where soldiers killed 200 people, another 150 went missing, and the time of the oppression, time of curfew, time of, you know, military dictatorship. So to him, this was very much a reality. Check for war!

But my generation, none of us remembers a time before the democratization. So what happened next? Martial law is declared. What happens? The first thing I did was actually Google martial law.

I mean, we knew the definition, but what does it mean to put the power into the military and they act as a judge and police and everything? What does it mean to suspend the rights to protest, the freedom to express? What does this all mean? I mean, reading it did not really calm me down. Only part that kind of calmed me down a little bit was how if there's enough lawmakers come together and vote together,

the government must lift the martial law immediately. And on the ground, what's happening to members of parliament at this point when they're learning that they're no longer even working, not just living, but they're not working in a democracy? I mean, while I was shaving and shivering in my bedroom, politicians were making mad dash. The few lawmakers who were around the assembly building, they were trying to call every single person out

The main opposition party put out an all-out call. Get every lawmaker they know to get back to the building. And this is already near midnight. So everyone has gone home already.

The aides, the workers, employees and everybody was called to the main assembly building. I think they acted actually quite fast. So these lawmakers, they're racing to get to the National Assembly. And that's because of a provision, right, in the law you read that allows them to gather together to vote to lift martial law? That's right.

One thing I need to kind of point out here is that a lot of these lawmakers are from the era of the military oppression. So they were not as confused. They reacted pretty quickly. They knew what they had to do. But by the time they were gathered, police had already moved to block the passage into the National Assembly grounds.

And there was already rumours, unconfirmed reports of the military helicopters that were landing on the ground of the National Assembly carrying special soldiers.

I remember calling one of the lawmakers in the cab, making his way there, and he was telling me all these stories that his colleagues had told him who were already there, saying that the soldiers had broken in, windows were being broken, aides are putting up a barricade, helicopter, yeah, landed on the roof of the National Assembly building, which I did not even know was possible.

And that some people were physically struggling with the police officers who were actively blocking, you know, identified lawmakers from entering. So essentially, it's what you'd imagine of sudden martial law in the midst of this democracy. You've got tanks on the street, helicopters on the parliament's roof.

When did protesters turn up? Protesters turned up almost immediately. I was trying to get to the National Assembly as soon as possible. And by the time I got there, there was already a few hundred protesters gathered at the gates. They were gathered right up to the edge of the closed gate where police officers were standing in front of us. Most of them were actually unarmed and they looked peaceful, but the mood was getting tense.

From the outside, you could not tell what was happening. I mean, the crowd was gathering to push and shout at the police officers to open the door, open the gate to the National Assembly. And the crowd was pushing to get inside because they feared that while people were barred outside, while the gate was locked...

First concern was that the lawmakers could not gather to form the quorum and lift the martial law. And second fear was that the lawmakers inside will be arrested by the helicopter carried special forces. So you've made it to the National Assembly. What do politicians do next? You know, I was talking to a lawmaker yesterday.

who just entered the ground, and I called him, and he barely could talk to me because he was so out of breath. And I asked him, what's going on? And he said, Oh, sorry, I just had to climb over the fence. And I said, What? He said, Yeah, I just climbed over a 1.5 meter fence. And only thanks to fellow citizens who boosted me up and put me over the fence. And I

I'm running to the chamber. And I said, well, why couldn't you just go through the main gate? And he said, even after I identified myself as a lawmaker, the police refused to let me in. And I said, well, isn't that illegal? And he said, well, I don't think they care anymore. That already signals me the seriousness of the situation. I think a lot of people were getting a wind of what was happening inside because of photos and videos that were leaking out. And we saw images of aides and lawmakers

spraying the fire extinguishers at the special forces in their full gear, holding their rifles, etc. At one point, there was a female lawmaker who grabbed the barrel of the gun and shouting at the soldier, saying, like, aren't you ashamed?

But amidst all of that, they got the vote through. How? You know, I got to give some credit to the main opposition party and actually the 18 ruling party members who also broke the ranks and joined the main opposition party to vote this motion through. I don't think the military had expected the lawmakers to act this fast. I mean, they didn't.

The president, when he announced this measure, he expected all the lawmakers to be home, away from the National Assembly building. He did not expect the leadership of the assembly to make a call right away to get everybody into the assembly as soon as possible. And we even saw the leader of the main opposition party, Lee Jae-myung, live streaming himself, you know, hopping over the fence because he feared that if he tried to go to the main entrance, he'll be arrested.

And yet all 190 who were present, which is not all the lawmakers, but all 190 present did vote to pass the legislation to lift martial law. And so at what point does the president give in? There was the

this anxiety that the president would not give in. Even after the motion was passed, it was hours while we were awaiting how Yoon would react. I mean, yes, legally, he had to lift the martial law, but politically, you know, he was playing a really high stakes game. I mean, the mystery is, why did he back down so easily? Because now he's facing impeachment, almost certain impeachment.

The main opposition has been calling for his immediate resignation. And if he does not resign, they will pursue impeachment. They have already tabled a motion to impeach the president. On Thursday, the Speaker of the House will call for debate this motion. And 24 hours later, which is mandatory, the House could vote this

this motion through. Now they need 200 members out of 300 to vote yes to suspend President Yoon. But the problem is that the main opposition have about 180 seats and they need about 10 representatives from the ruling party to defect.

and vote yes on the impeachment. The main opposition may wait and make sure that they have the votes before they make the motion. And I think there's still the fear, even though the president has pulled back his troops and said that martial law is officially lifted, that he may try again. One of the guests on why he did this was out of desperation. I mean, this is a president who's...

lame, lame, lame duck since the last general election. He has very few of his own lawmakers in the House. And the situation is still the same. He's still a lame duck president. And he's even more desperate now. Well, Jake, I know that all of this was happening late in the night or early in the day, depending on how you look at it. And you're still reporting for us. I'm going to let you get back to it. But thank you so much for your time. Hey, I hope this was useful. Thank you.

So we've looked at how this political crisis is unfolding in the country. But how surprising is it really? If President Yoon's term faces an untimely and dramatic end, he'll hardly be the first in South Korea's history. And as Jake told us, it's something lawmakers know all too well.

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This is The Global Story. We bring you one big international story in detail, five days a week. Follow or subscribe wherever you listen. With me is Soo Min Hwang, a BBC journalist and the former editor of the BBC's Korean language service. Hi, Soo Min. Hello.

From a Western perspective, South Korea has this reputation of being a strong democracy, especially when you compare it to North Korea, that it's been standing firm against this communist threat on its border. But it seems like this democracy, many people are now realizing that it's a lot younger and more fragile. It's a lot fragile than you think.

The government of the Republic of Korea actually started in 1948. It's not very long time ago. And since then, up until late 1980s, we've seen a series of authoritarian rulership and coups that overturned the government. And then another authoritarian government comes in place, another coup. We've seen a lot of uprisings and ups and downs in the Korean politics.

So since the end of the Korean War, essentially, and the birth of South Korea, there's been an ongoing battle between democracy and military dictatorship is what you're saying. So where should we start that story?

That's a very complicated question. The first president of South Korea, he was quite repressive towards his political opposition and it led to massive student-led demonstrations. And he was ousted by a military coup led by General Park, Park Jung-hee, in 1961. ♪

Troops guard public buildings in the early hours of martial law, proclaimed by the army junta that took over the country. He became the president then, and he stayed in the office for 18 years. Wow. That's a long time. It doesn't scream democracy. It does not at all. And so what was he like? Because you're talking about a general here. What kind of leader was he? He was also quite brutal. He repressed, again, political oppositions, and virtually it

became like a dictatorship. He gave him almost full control over the country. And he could be re-elected for unlimited number of six-year terms. So how does it end? Well, quite dramatically, he was assassinated by his own aide, his own intelligent chief, which then meant that another military general took over Korean government. Right. So it went from one general to another, South Koreans at this point, and

would seemingly have accepted that they are now well and truly into military rule. But how do they truly react to that? People were not happy. People were living under severe censorships. The press was controlled. There were curfews. And there were many activities led by labor activists, students and opposition leaders who were protesting against this.

But a very, very significant uprising happens in 1980 in a city called Gwangju. It's the southern part of South Korea. The demonstrators are calling for democratic elections and an end to martial law. 30,000 students were on the streets battling with police. The president...

deployed special forces into the city and then started brutally squashing the civilians and the students who were involved. The army controls Gwangju with an occupying force of about 10,000 men. Troops are closely checking people on the streets, not allowing them to gather in crowds of any size. 200 people died according to the official figures.

And although the uprising itself didn't succeed at that time, the consequences of it, the effects that it had on Korean mentality, it really changed. And a lot of protests started coming up as a result of Gwangju uprising. Right. So it really shows how young South Korea's democracy is.

It sounds like when you're getting to the late 80s, the early 90s, this is when you're getting democracy emerge in South Korea. But would you say that democracy works in South Korea at that point? I think...

it's in its infancy stage trying to find its footing in a very young country that was used to wars and invasions and authoritarian rule. And you do also get the first female leader, don't you? Oh, she is a story in itself.

So in 2013, we have our first female president, Park Geun-hye. She's actually the daughter of the dictator that we had in the early 1960s, who eventually ended up being assassinated by his aides.

She garnered a lot of support from the Korean public because what we saw was that after we've gone through a bit of an economic difficulties in the early 2000s, a lot of older generations started being nostalgic, but corruption started emerging. The central allegation is that the country's biggest companies paid money to the president's best friend in return for favours. So top business leaders now face awkward questions which may yet put them behind bars.

And blacklisting some celebrities, cultural figures, if they spoke out against the government, that they would suddenly be put down in a very indirect way. And under her government, she had even planned for martial law. So these things were very, very shocking to the Korean public. And people eventually started coming onto the streets. And we saw so many people.

gathering together every Saturday with candlelight, which eventually became known as a candlelight movement or in Korea, better known as candlelight revolution.

We were seeing incredible photos and footages of not only fully grown adults with candlelights, but with their young children. And we saw a lot of parents saying, we want our next generation to witness our fight for democracy. We want our little children being part of this movement. Wow.

So what happened? What impact did those protests, generational protests from what you're describing, what impact did they have? It eventually ended with the president actually being impeached. It was a huge watershed moment. In battles, South Korean President Park Geun-hye was formally stripped of the presidency Friday morning local time. The head of South Korea's highest court says President Park committed a grave breach of the law. It was against the constitution and the trust of the people.

Koreans even to this day, they take such pride in the fact that their voices were heard in the parliament.

Korea, as we've discussed just earlier on, we've gone through a lot of dictatorships and authoritarian rules. And people are very discontent about how only the wealthy and the well-connected hold the power of the country. But this time, things have overturned. People spoke up and the government listened.

So we've been talking about this battle between democracy and dictatorship and military rule. And what you're describing right now with this candlelight movement is a moment where South Koreans fought to protect democracy and they won.

But that wasn't the end of the story. And this week, we've seen lawmakers, South Koreans, once again fight for that democracy. We've even seen lawmakers scale walls, fight through chaotic scenes to make it to the National Assembly, all in a bid to once again protect that democracy. And right now, we're still waiting to see if they were successful. The next few days will be extremely interesting. There'll be a lot of legal debates about what...

what things have been unconstitutional, constitutional, who are to be blamed for. But what's very clear is that now people are very, very angry. President Nguyen, his support rating has not been very good. It has been under 20%, but it will even plummet even further after this. So how do you make sense of it? Why? Why did this leader this time decide to declare martial law?

What's pretty clear is that his motivations are personal. He was facing a lot of oppositions in the parliament. He was struggling to get the budget through. Currently in the National Assembly, the opposition party is the majority. And his wife, First Lady, is embroiled in quite a few scandals of herself and violence.

The National Assembly has been struggling to really get her under the judicial system and get her thoroughly investigated and then hold her accountable for her alleged crimes.

corruption and bribery, accepting illegal bribery, which includes deal back. And they've sought to impeach certain members in the parliament because they also think that they are way too close to the president. So a lot of the analysts are saying that this is just a very, very desperate move to hold on to power.

So Soo-min, we're sitting here in London, but as a South Korean, how hopeful are you that democracy will win and survive this moment? It definitely is one of the pivotal moments where it is a test for a democratic resilience.

I mean, what the National Assembly decides and votes on in terms of his impeachment bill, we will have to see. However, what's very clear is that if he's not impeached, there will definitely be strong voices coming out of the public. So a very sensitive moment for South Korea and a very uncertain future. Soo-min, thank you so much. Thank you very much.

And thanks so much to you for listening. We're back at the same time each weekday on the BBC World Service. And you can also listen as a podcast. Just search for The Global Story wherever you get your BBC pods. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at theglobalstoryatbbc.com. Wherever you're listening in the world, bye for now.

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