Something unexpected – but hardly unprecedented – happened in South Korea on Dec. 3, 2024. With little warning, President Yoon Suk Yeol declared emergency martial law, citing the threat from “pro-North Korean anti-state forces.”
The move, which appeared more about curtailing efforts by the main opposition – the center-left Democratic Party – to frustrate Yoon’s policy agenda through their control of parliament, left many South Koreans stunned. As one Seoul resident told reporters: “It feels like a coup d'état.”
