Going against president, South Korean parliament votes to lift martial law
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law late Tuesday, vowing to eliminate “anti-state” forces as he struggles against an opposition that controls the country’s parliament and that he accuses of sympathizing with communist North Korea.
Hours later, parliament voted to ask the president lift the declaration, with the National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik declaring that lawmakers “will protect democracy with the people.”
Woo called for police and military personnel to withdraw from the Assembly’s grounds.
The president’s surprising move harkened back to an era of authoritarian leaders that the country has not seen since the 1980s, and it was immediately denounced by the opposition and the leader of Yoon’s own conservative party.
“It’s a shocking development. There’s no other way to describe it. South Korea has experienced martial law in the past but not since it became a full-fledged liberal democracy in the ’80s,” said Vina Nadjibulla, who works with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
Vina Nadjibulla with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada says South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of emergency martial law — which he said was necessary to protect the country from “the threat of pro-North Korean forces” —
is shocking and nothing like it has happened since the 1980s.
Nadjibulla said it was “important to note” there is no immediate threat from North Korea that might have influenced the president’s choice.
“At least, that’s not the reason why this has happened,” told CBC News Network on Tuesday.
“This is very much about a domestic power struggle and a deeply unpopular president essentially bringing in this measure in the midst of a number of debates in its domestic parliament on the budget as well as scandals — including with his own wife — and other issues that have been plaguing democracy and the constitutional system in South Korea for the last few months.”
Following Yoon’s announcement, South Korea’s military proclaimed that parliament and other political gatherings that could cause “social confusion” would be suspended, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
The military also said that the country’s striking doctors should return to work within 48 hours, Yonhap said. Thousands of doctors have been striking for months over government plans to expand the number of students at medical schools. The military said anyone who violates the decree could be arrested without a warrant.
Vote was unanimous
Based on South Korea’s constitution, the president has authority to declare martial law but parliament can vote to ask him to end it.
Soon after the declaration, the National Assembly speaker called on his YouTube channel for all lawmakers to gather at the Assembly building. He urged military and law enforcement personnel to “remain calm and hold their positions.
All 190 lawmakers who participated in the vote supported the lifting of martial law. The nation is now waiting to see whether the president will do so.
“Now, we’re in a constitutional crisis. We don’t know what the president will do next…. this is a chaotic situation with things developing as we speak,” said Nadjibulla.
Television footage showed soldiers who had been stationed at parliament leaving the site after the vote.
Supporters of South Korea’s opposition gathered in Seoul to call for the dismissal of martial law after a declaration from the country’s president late Tuesday.
Earlier, TV showed police officers blocking the entrance of the Assembly and helmeted soldiers carrying rifles in front of the building.
An Associated Press photographer saw at least three helicopters, likely from the military, that landed inside the Assembly grounds, while two or three helicopters circled above the site.
The leader of Yoon’s conservative People Power Party, Han Dong-hoon, called the decision to impose martial law “wrong” and vowed to “stop it with the people.” Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, who narrowly lost to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election, called Yoon’s announcement “illegal and unconstitutional.”
Yoon said during a televised speech that martial law would help “rebuild and protect” the country from “falling into the depths of national ruin.” He said he would “eradicate pro-North Korean forces and protect the constitutional democratic order.”
“I will eliminate anti-state forces as quickly as possible and normalize the country,” he said, while asking the people to believe in him and tolerate “some inconveniences.”
Yoon — whose approval rating has dipped in recent months — has struggled to push his agenda against an opposition-controlled parliament since taking office in 2022.
Yoon’s party has been locked in an impasse with the liberal opposition over next year’s budget bill. The opposition has also attempted to pass motions to impeach three top prosecutors, including the chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.
Conservatives have called it a vendetta against their criminal investigations of Lee, who has been seen as the favourite for the next presidential election in 2027 in opinion polls.
Yoon has also dismissed calls for independent investigations into scandals involving his wife and top officials, drawing quick, strong rebukes from his political rivals.
Yoon’s move was the first declaration of martial law since the country’s democratization in 1987. The country’s last previous martial law was in October 1979.
Published at Tue, 03 Dec 2024 14:02:08 +0000
Israeli defence minister threatens to expand Lebanon war if Hezbollah truce collapses
Israel threatened on Tuesday to return to war in Lebanon if its truce with Hezbollah collapses, and said this time its attacks would go deeper and target the Lebanese state itself, after the deadliest day since the ceasefire was agreed last week.
In its strongest threat since the truce was reached to end 14 months of war with Hezbollah, Israel said it would hold Lebanon responsible for failing to disarm militants who violated the truce.
“If we return to war, we will act strongly, we will go deeper, and the most important thing they need to know: that there will be no longer be an exemption for the state of Lebanon,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said.
“If until now we separated the state of Lebanon from Hezbollah … it will no longer be [like this],” he said during a visit to the northern border area.
Despite last week’s truce, Israeli forces have continued strikes in southern Lebanon against what they say are Hezbollah fighters ignoring the agreement to halt attacks and withdraw north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometres from the Israeli-Lebanese border.
On Monday, Hezbollah shelled an Israeli military post, while Lebanese authorities said at least 12 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon. Another person was killed on Tuesday by a drone strike, Lebanon said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said any infraction of the truce would be punished, however small.
“We are enforcing this ceasefire with an iron fist,” he said ahead of a cabinet meeting in the northern border city of Nahariya. “We are currently in a ceasefire, I note, a ceasefire, not the end of the war.”
Lebanon asks U.S., France to press Israel on holding truce
The Beirut government must “authorize the Lebanese army to enforce their part, to keep Hezbollah away beyond the Litani, and to dismantle all the infrastructure,” Katz said.
“If they don’t do it and this whole agreement collapses, then the reality will be very clear.”
Top Lebanese officials urged Washington and Paris to press Israel to uphold the ceasefire, after dozens of military operations on Lebanese soil that Beirut has deemed violations, two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
At least nine people were killed and three injured overnight from Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, as the Israeli military said it struck dozens of Hezbollah targets across the country. These strikes came shortly after Hezbollah accused Israel of violating the ceasefire and fired missiles on an Israeli military position in the disputed Shebaa Farms area.
The sources said caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a close Hezbollah ally who negotiated the deal on behalf of Lebanon, spoke to officials at the White House and French presidency late on Monday.
Mikati, quoted by the Lebanese news agency, said that diplomatic communications had intensified since Monday to stop Israeli violations of the ceasefire. He also said a recruitment drive was under way by the Lebanese army to strengthen its presence in the south.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters on Monday that the ceasefire “is holding” and that the U.S. had “anticipated that there might be violations.”
Neither the French presidency nor the foreign ministry were immediately available to comment. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot spoke to his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar on Monday, saying both sides should adhere to the ceasefire.
The truce came into effect on Nov. 27 and prohibits Israel from conducting offensive military operations in Lebanon, while requiring Lebanon to prevent armed groups including Hezbollah from launching attacks on Israel. It gives Israeli troops 60 days to withdraw from south Lebanon.
International monitoring
A mission chaired by the United States is tasked with monitoring, verifying and helping enforce the truce, but it has yet to begin work.
Berri on Monday called on the mission to “urgently” ensure Israel halts its breaches, saying Beirut had logged at least 54 Israeli violations of the ceasefire so far.
Israel has said its continued activity in Lebanon is aimed at enforcing the ceasefire.
Lebanon’s Mikati met in Beirut on Monday with U.S. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, who will chair the monitoring committee.
Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that France’s representative to the committee, Gen. Guillaume Ponchin, would arrive in Beirut on Wednesday and that the committee would hold its first meeting on Thursday.
“There is an urgency to finalize the mechanism, otherwise it will be too late,” the source said, referring to Israel’s gradual intensification of strikes despite the truce.
Published at Tue, 03 Dec 2024 14:53:27 +0000
