(4 Dec 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Seoul – 4 December 2024
1. Wide of Gwanghwamun Square
2. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Park No-hwa, 77, local resident:
"If martial law is declared, it will surely be chaotic, but for the sake of the country we have to right the ship. It is regrettable martial law was lifted and there are pros and cons, but the state of South Korea worries me. I have lived long enough, but I want our children to live in a free, democratic country, peacefully and happily. But that is not what is happening. Those cunning Democratic Party lawmakers have taken over and are denying the government its right to rule. As a citizen, I don’t understand this."
3. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Oh Tae-yoon, 19, student:
"I cannot help but think that it was a rash choice. I cannot take care of the future generation of the country, but I want our lawmakers to do their best so these kinds of things never happen."
4. SOUNDBITE (Korean) Jung Seung-il, 44, office worker:
"I woke up in the middle of the night to hear the news, and I thought I was dreaming. It was just hard to believe this happened in our country in the 21st century. As a father, I was just concerned about what kind of country my child would live in, in the future. What we need now is to overcome this crisis and take this opportunity to make a better South Korea."
5. Various of Gwanghwamun Square, police patrolling
STORYLINE:
Resident in South Korea expressed their shock on Wednesday following the sudden and short-lived declaration of martial law by the country’s president.
President Yoon Suk Yeol imposed martial law late Tuesday out of frustration with the opposition, vowing to eliminate “anti-state” forces as he struggles against opponents who control parliament and that he accuses of sympathizing with communist North Korea.
The country’s 190 lawmakers voted down Yoon’s martial law decree, with it lasting only about six hours before his Cabinet formally lifted it around 4:30 a.m.
"I woke up in the middle of the night to hear the news, and I thought I was dreaming" office worker, Jung Seung-il, said as he reacted to the news.
"It was just hard to believe this happened in our country in the 21st century."
Student Oh Tae-yoon, thought Yoon’s declaration of martial law was a "rash choice" and urged South Korean lawmakers to not let this happen again.
Meanwhile, Park No-hwa, 77, said it was regrettable that martial law had been lifted.
South Korea’s opposition parties on Wednesday submitted a motion to impeach Yoon.
Impeaching Yoon would require the support of two-thirds of parliament, and at least six justices of the nine-member Constitutional Court would have to endorse it to remove him from office.
The motion, submitted jointly by the main liberal opposition Democratic Party and five smaller opposition parties, could be put to a vote as early as Friday.
Yoon’s martial law declaration, the first of its kind in more than 40 years, harkened to South Korea’s past military-backed governments when authorities occasionally proclaimed martial law and other decrees that allowed them to station combat soldiers, tanks and armored vehicles on streets or at public places like schools to prevent anti-government demonstrations.
Such scenes of military intervention had not been seen since South Korea achieved a genuine democracy in the late 1980s.
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