this is democracy Now democracynow. org the Warren peace report I'm Amy Goodman in New York joined by democracy Nows Juan Gonzalez in Chicago hi Juan hi Amy and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world members of South Korea's opposition have moved to impeach president Yun sakol after he plunged South Korea into crisis by declaring martial law in a surprise late night broadcast on Tuesday I declare martial law to protect the free republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean Communist forces to eradicate the Despicable Pro North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people and to protect the free constitutional order minutes later the leader of the opposition called on supporters and members of the opposition to gather at the National Assembly nearly 300 troops stormed the National Assembly as lawmakers gathered inside to vote down the martial law order and declare it invalid it passed unanimously this is representative Kim menuk a senior member of the democratic party of Korea on December 3rd 2024 at 10:27 p. m.
president Yun declared the martial law this declaration is illegal and constitutes a criminal act directly violating the Constitution and other laws it is essentially a Cuda as details emerge that the order would ban all political activities protest and labor strike several close aids to the president resigned and his own party urged him to repeal his declaration the Korean Confederation of trade unions announced an indefinite general strike called on the President to resign meanwhile thousands of people gathered outside the National Assembly protesting the president's order amidst widespread and growing opposition president Yun backed down and revoked his order six hours later after the national assembly's demand to lift martial law martial law troops have been withdrawn I will accept the national assembly's demand and lift martial law through a cabinet meeting for more on these dramatic de velopments we're joined by two guests Christine an is international coordinator of the campaign Korea peace now she's also founder and executive director of women cross DMZ a global movement of women mobilizing to end the Korean War she's joining us from Honolulu Hawaii and from Soul South Korea we're joined by organizer de hanung he is head of the networking team of the international strategy Center he's part of the no cold war Collective um we're going to begin with you Dean song uh you're there in Soul can you explain what happened near midnight uh on Tuesday night sure uh around around 10:30 p. m. uh basically we started like I was at a funeral myself and uh with various organizers and activists and at 30 10:30 pm I just saw that uh there was just a lot of social media that in effect was saying that uh martial law had been called and of course all of us at the beginning were completely incredulous like uh we we would never imagine uh some of us the younger ones that we would have martial law called uh during our lifetimes um and yes and because and afterwards a lot of the people uh went to the National Assembly themselves so a lot of them went home and after going home they went directly to the National Assembly together and to protect uh the National Assembly uh from the military uh troops uh that were being dispatched so it uh martial law was called at 10:30 p.
m.
