One of the biggest questions on people's minds in Seoul on Wednesday is: What was the president thinking?
In a late-night speech that threw South Korea's parliament into chaos and tested the country's commitment to democracy, President Yoon Suk Yeol said he was imposing martial law.
Less than 24 hours later, his political future is under threat, with protests in the streets and impeachment proceedings against him.
So what happened?
Martial law was last introduced in South Korea in 1979, triggered by the assassination of the then military ruler in a coup. Today's South Korea, however, is a far cry from this situation and the repressive years that followed.
It is a stable and thriving democracy – but Yoon claimed he was introducing military rule to save the country from dark forces. He called the opposition-controlled National Assembly a “den of criminals” that was “trying to paralyze” the government.
Hours later, he was forced to back down as furious protesters and lawmakers gathered outside the National Assembly. The deputies went in and voted against the order.
His shock statement was, in fact, an attempt to gain the kind of grip on power that has eluded him since he won the presidency in 2022 by the narrowest margin in South Korean history.
And barely a month has passed since then without controversy.
In late 2022, he was criticized for his government's response to the horrific Halloween stampede, which killed 159 young people in Seoul.
Then there were calls to investigate his wife after she was caught accepting a Dior handbag as a gift – a scandal that still makes headlines.
In April this year, his party was defeated in the parliamentary elections, leaving it in a lame duck situation. Just this week, he found himself engaged in a political battle with opposition lawmakers over the country's budget.
Even before he told South Koreans he was suspending their rights, his approval rating was below 20 percent.
There are some clues in Yoon's speech as to what he was thinking.
What immediately became clear was that he was frustrated with the opposition-controlled parliament. In his speech on Tuesday evening, he described the assembly where they exercise their mandate as “a monster that is destroying the liberal democratic system”.
The reference to a threat from North Korea and “anti-state forces” suggests that he also hoped to gain support from the kind of right-wing conservatives in South Korea who refer to liberal politicians as “communists.”
But the president misinterpreted his country and its policies.
His statement was a chilling reminder of a period that many in South Korea have tried to forget. On television, we saw newspaper readers trembling.
In 1980, when pro-democracy activists, including many students, took to the streets of Gwangju city to protest martial law, the military responded with violence and around 200 people were killed.
While martial law lasted three years – from 1979 to 1981 – military rule had existed for decades before that, and it continued until 1987. And during those years, South Korea was full of suspicion, when anti-government activists were labeled communist spies and arrested or killed. .
Yet during his election campaign, Yoon praised authoritarian Gen. Chun Doo-hwan and said he had handled government affairs well — except for his crackdown on pro-democracy activists.
He was later forced to apologize and said he “certainly did not defend or praise Chun's government.”
But it provides insight into the president's view of what constitutes power.
For months, rumors have swirled in South Korean political circles that Yoon was considering imposing martial law. In September, opposition leaders and party members said it was a possibility. Most rejected it as too extreme an option.
But he may well have been motivated by something else: fear of prosecution.
Park Geun-hye, the country's first female leader, was jailed after being convicted of abuse of power and corruption. His predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, was investigated following allegations he was involved in stock price manipulation. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison for corruption and bribery in 2020.
Another former president, Roh Moo-hyun, committed suicide in 2009 while under investigation for allegedly receiving millions in bribes.
In South Korea, prosecution has almost become a political tool – a threat that the opposition can use. This may partly explain why President Yoon took such drastic measures.
Whatever his motivations, Yoon's career will struggle to recover. He also faces calls to resign, and some local media reported that members of his own People Power party were considering expelling him from the party.
South Korea is a stable but noisy democracy. And he refused to accept another authoritarian diktat.
President Yoon will now face the judgment of a parliament and a people after rejecting the most serious challenge to the country's democracy since the 1980s.
