"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," Mr Yoon said.
"The imposition of emergency martial law comes as Mr Yoon's approval rating dropped to 19% in the latest Gallup poll last week, with many expressing dissatisfaction over his handling of the economy and controversies involving his wife, Kim Keon Hee."
Hmm. The leader also seems to come from a party that has a minority in Parliament. So it appears like a very unpopular president, with a minority party in government going authoritarian to do... something?
It's only authoritarianism if there's also a high public approval rating. If public approval is below 50%, it still counts as liberal democracy.
pro-North Korean anti-state forces
DPRK confirmed anarchist
I believe that is meant as "anti-SK-state forces" not as forces that want to fight any kind of state, but yes, funny joke
They are totally free to vote for anyone* they want!
*As long as they are anti-China, anti-DPRK, and pro-US.
it has all the buzzwords expected from a US bootlicker. also kind of crazy to talk about freedom when youre literally declaring martial law because people are not in your side lmao
I mean that's always been the West's way of doing things, preemptively discredit claims about being a dictatorship and taking away freedom by claiming your doing it to protect freedom. It's basically the equivalent telling someone "I don't want to sound offensive, but...".
i'm surprised this hasn't happened in more western states yet
The west doesnt need to bother since their citizens willingly vote for fascism every election anyway.
People in Western states are mostly docile. Occupied Korea has been wracked with strikes and protests for the past 2 years. But probably the biggest reason this martial law was declared is that the opposition parties have been trying to get Yoon and his associates investigated for multiple corruption scandals for the last 2 years. They also hold a parliamentary majority and are blocking everything he tries to do. It's likely they actually approached something that could incriminate him, or they refused to vote for something they should have, so now Yoon is acting to regain authority over the government (since calling everyone that disagrees with him a communist, spy or traitor, doesn't really seem to work).
I wonder what kind of scandal he was about to get implicated in? Massive corruption? The Moonies?
Troops were seen at the parliament building. Apparently the latest is those who reached the building unanimously voted to lift the martial law and troops were seen leaving.
Just normal occupied Korea things.
Majority party, which is in opposition to him, was about to impeach members of his cabinet, apparently. And he isn't very popular with the people. Also, it's been around a year of talks about impeachment for Yoon Sok Yeol himself.
Must be commie spies, clearly.
