Martial law: What is it and what happened in South Korea?
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South Korea is in shock. The last 24 hours have been a political whirlwind. Late on Tuesday night, the president declared his country was under 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.

and to eradicate the shameless pro-North, anti-state forces that are depriving our people of their freedom and happiness. Korea is a liberal democracy and this move came as a huge surprise. A few hours later, Parliament voted that it was unlawful and people protested in the streets. Things are not looking good for the president. So what is martial law and why do some countries use it? That is what we're looking at in today's episode of What in the World from the BBC World Service. I'm Hannah Gelbart. ♪

Here to tell us more is Julie Yun-Yong Lee, a reporter for the BBC World Service who is from Seoul. Hi, Julie. Hello. I imagine you're probably still reeling, Julie, from the surprise announcement on Tuesday. Can you talk me through a bit of a timeline of what has happened?

So basically, on Tuesday night, President Yoon Sung-yol declared this martial law all of a sudden, out of nowhere, which we're still figuring out why he actually did it. And that martial law literally puts the military in charge of during this whole emergency situation. So he said it because of

from North Korea and there was a problem inside the country. Political activities were banned by the law and soldiers were on standby and military forces trying to enter the parliament and public gathered on the street to protect the

the parliament chanting his name to step down and people felt very scared about losing their freedom because of the old martial law. And basically, I think the news really shocked everyone because opposition politicians rushed to the parliament and arguing that Yoon's action was so illegal. So they

quickly voted to cancel this martial law. And at the same time, I can see some of the protests started on the street with people angry and scared about losing their rights. So after just six hours, President Yun lifted this martial law because of the strong backlash I described. So it was such a crazy, chaotic moment that left many, many questions his leadership.

In the clip of the president you heard at the beginning, he mentioned anti-state forces and the threat from North Korea. That's particularly important because North and South Korea fought in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, and they've technically been at war ever since.

Lots of people think the president might have brought in martial law as an excuse to distract from his own poor political approval ratings and a number of scandals, including his wife allegedly accepting a luxury Dior handbag and manipulating stock.

So Julie, what actually is martial law? So martial law is a kind of the special temporary role to protect countries when there is emergency happened. So it can be only used when the emergency situation happened. And then once this happened, the military is kind of in charge of everything. So any kind of civil rights can be banned and suspended during this time of period.

Does that basically mean that people could be thrown into prison for all kinds of things, that the normal law and order just isn't in place? Exactly. So all the civic right row that we know normally can be suspended, which means that we can arrest anyone who we think violate this martial law can be arrested without warrant. It also affects the press, right? Yes, of course. So once this happened...

Any articles and news articles can be censored by the government. So we can lose our freedom of speech and everything. And you need to understand some of the context of this because many older Korean people have trauma from their history with this military related stuff, like back in 1960s and 80s. This whole notorious leaders with the military, they control people and suppress all the protest.

Even for young Koreans, they have only experienced life in a democratic Korea, of course. So they also feel very shocked and confused and also very angry about the whole situation because for them, democracy is something they've already known, like freedom of speech, protest. They're part of their life. So they're more angry about this whole situation. So this declaration of martial law brought back all...

all of those memories of being under authoritarian military regimes and the times that South Korea has been under martial law before. What is the worst case for the president now?

So I think the worst case scenario would be impeachment. Basically, declaring this martial law without talking to parliament is against the rule under the Sanskrit law. So a lot of people say it already broke the law. So now there is a serious talk about impeachment, which means that we can actually force the president out of his office. But whether or not he stays, it also depends on what parliament, the court,

the court and the people decide in the coming weeks. There's also possibility that he may end up with a jail. Julie, lots of people listening to this, when they hear of South Korea, they might think of K-pop, K-dramas, amazing Korean food. The country has worked so hard to be economically thriving and it responded really quickly to this situation. What does that, the response, say about the state of South Korea's democracy?

So, you know, as a Korean, a lot of Korean people, including young Korean, older Korean, we're very proud of our democracy because it's such a well-established country after the war and we developed so quickly. So we're very proud of it.

So that's why people are very angry about the whole situation, how this one person can ruin what we've established past many, many years. So we need to, there was this general sentiment that we need to protect our democracy. So that was kind of really important thing. Julie, thank you so much for speaking to us. Thank you.

Let's get some reaction now from someone who lives in South Korea. This is Dewey. Yeah, the past 24 hours was intense, that's sure. It was like an overwhelming 24 hours since right after the news, there was a news that the martial laws have been blocked by the parliament and that the situation has been twisted.

I felt that as a student myself, we were just talking about the same thing over and over again and how things should change. First, like initially there was a lot of fear and uncertainty, but today I was like deeply moved by the maturity and resilience of fellow Korean citizens because despite the chaos, people have been addressing the situation through peaceful and democratic means, which was very truly inspiring. And also I,

how our constitution begins with the Republic of Korea is a democratic republic and all power comes from the people. And I could see this principle alive and well today because opposite with how the decision the government made yesterday, the moment...

has sparked the nationwide awareness of the fragility of the democracy. So while the government's action felt like a setback, the people have shown that they're firmly living in the 21st century by their actions, ready to defend their rights peacefully. South Korea isn't the only country which has been under martial law. Here to talk us through a few more examples is Amelia Janssen from the What In The World team. Hello. Are there any countries that are currently under martial law?

Yeah, there currently are two prominent cases of countries being under martial law. So the first one is Ukraine. Ukraine introduced martial law the day that Russia invaded the country. And it's since then been extended pretty much every few months. Some of the rules implemented means that men between the ages of 18 and 60 can't leave the country. And for example, they were supposed to have a presidential election this year. But because of the martial law, it means that they've postponed it for now.

But it does put Ukraine in a slightly awkward position because they're trying to fight Russia, but they're also applying for EU membership. So they have the martial law, which does, to a certain extent, restrict Ukrainians' human rights, which is a bit awkward. The other example that you might have heard of is Myanmar.

which is currently partially under martial law. And as you might know, it's experiencing a civil war. Where else has used martial law historically? Thailand's had quite a few coups over the last century. There's been 13 successful ones and nine unsuccessful ones.

The last time that happened was in 2014 to 15 when the country was under martial law for 10 months. The military leader who seized power then was prime minister until 2023, even after the martial laws were abolished.

Hundreds of people were prosecuted and jailed and analysts in the country say that democracy still hasn't fully recovered in the country. Syria abolished martial law in 2011. It was introduced in 1963, which means it's the longest running martial law in history. A surprising case.

of martial law was in the US in Hawaii during the Second World War. Hawaii was placed under martial law between 1941 and 1944. And it meant that there were strict curfews and people were banned from taking pictures of coastal areas. And the reason this was done is because the US was scared that Japanese infiltrators were on the island and could gather information. Amelia, thank you for coming on the podcast. Thank you.

That is all for today's episode. This is a fast-moving situation and as we're recording this, it looks like Yoon Seung-yool is not going to be president of South Korea for much longer. People are saying that his declaration of martial law was a massive miscalculation and the country's response shows how well its democracy is doing. You can get the latest on this story on the BBC News website. I'm Hannah Gelbart. Thank you for joining us for this episode of What in the World from the BBC World Service. We'll see you next time.

I'm Azni Mashiri from the Global Story podcast, where we're looking at Joe Biden's final weeks in office. It's often referred to as the lame duck period, but Joe Biden has still been making big decisions on issues like the war in Ukraine. And he's even made headlines at home by pardoning his son Hunter. So what else might he have up his sleeve? Find the Global Story wherever you get your BBC podcasts.