South Korea: Yoon Suk-yeol’s desperate martial law defeated within hours Image: Hashflu, Wikimedia Commons Share TweetA spectacular political whirlwind has taken place in South Korea, where the President suddenly declared martial law in the name of “defending the country from pro-North Korean forces,” only to be forced to roll it back in a matter of hours. Why did this extraordinary move turn into a farce so quickly, and what forces has this unleashed in the crisis-ridden country? “Emergency Martial Law” declared in a rushOn the evening of Tuesday 3 December, the extremely unpopular President of South Korea, Yoon Suk-yeol (윤석열), suddenly declared “emergency martial law”. The incumbent president had battled years of low popularity and rising class struggles. Now, Yoon, who faces growing calls for his resignation, accuses the opposition Democratic Party (더불어민주당) of “anti-state activities plotting rebellion.”He tried to justify his decision by claiming that it was aimed at “eradicating pro-North Korean forces” and in order “to protect the constitutional order of freedom,” as he proceeded to suspend this very same freedom.Shortly after this declaration, events rapidly unfolded. According to South Korean law, it is possible to overturn the decision to implement martial law through a majority vote in the National Assembly. Given that Yoon’s People Power Party (국민의힘) had suffered a massive defeat in the parliamentary election this year, thereby being a minority in the Assembly, this was not hard for the opposition to manage. In reality though, not only did Yoon’s usual rivals immediately declare their opposition to the decision to implement martial law, many of those on his own side did so too. Han Dong-hoon (한동훈), the leader of Yoon’s own party, as well as Oh Se-hoon (오세훈), the mayor of Seoul and also a prominent member of Yoon’s party, also publicly condemned it.The first objective for Yoon therefore was to stop the National Assembly from meeting altogether. Police buses blocked off roads into the parliament as some parliamentarians attempted to reach the building. Soon after, soldiers arrived at parliament and forced their way inside, proceeding to arrest opposition MPs.On top of this, tanks and heavily armoured vehicles have been seen rolling through the streets of Seoul, to the shock of the South Korean masses.Shortly after Yoon’s declaration, the incumbent Chief of Staff of South Korea’s Army, Park An-su (박안수), was put in charge of organising the martial law. Park then declared that "all political activities, including those related to the National Assembly, regional assemblies, political parties, the forming of political organisations, rallies and protests are banned,” according to The Korea Times.Why Did Yoon Do This?Yoon’s sudden stunt of declaring martial law is a shocking escalation in the situation. The last time martial law was declared was in 1979, when the ruling military junta needed it to crush a rising wave of mass struggle with the backing of the U.S.Yoon’s sudden stunt of declaring martial law is a shocking escalation in the situation / Image: 서울의소리 VoiceOfSeoul, Wikimedia CommonsThis time, Yoon, who was elected through South Korea’s now-bourgeois-democratic system, was clearly trying a desperate adventure out of his own personal interest.Ostensibly, Yoon’s move came as an immediate response to having his government budget blocked by the opposition-controlled National Assembly.But in reality, Yoon’s administration was widely reviled and embattled in crisis from day one. He managed to take advantage of the mass anger against the previous liberal Democratic government. However, he quickly exposed himself, along with the hard-right conservative establishment behind him, as equally reactionary, inept, corrupt, and completely incapable of addressing the deep crises experienced by the South Korean masses.After Yoon’s election victory, there was a defeatist hue and cry amongst the liberals in South Korea and the West. The South Korean masses, however, behaved quite differently. Yoon’s election and his behaviour whilst in power has spurred on the masses from below. Under the Yoon Administration, organised class struggles have intensified, including several large-scale strikes led by the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU,민주노총) despite severe repression from the state, and a historic strike of Samsung workers, which halted the country’s key chip manufacturing industries. There is also an ongoing nationwide doctors’ strike that has been going on for months, which the man named commander of martial law, Park, explicitly ordered the halting of.A slew of other questions, such as innumerable allegations of corruption; escalating tension with North Korea; and Yoon’s penchant for suppressing the media also provoked tremendous anger and buoyed the call for his impeachment. In July 2024, an online petition for Yoon’s impeachment rapidly gathered more than a million signatures and briefly overloaded the National Assembly’s website. In November, over 100,000 people rallied in Seoul to demand the same.To top this all off, scandals involving Yoon himself continue to surface. These include some that emerged even whilst he was running for president. Yoon’s wife Kim Keon-hee (김건희) has been particularly embroiled in controversy, from accepting luxury handbags, manipulating stocks, and most recently allegations of meddling in the ruling party’s parliamentary candidate nomination process. The last of these crises produced an open rift between Yoon and his People Power Party.All this meant that Yoon, now also at odds with his own party, was essentially suspended in mid-air. He had no effective base in society. By the end of November, a Gallup Korea survey showed only 19 percent of South Koreans approved of Yoon, while another poll by OhmyNews showed over 58.6 percent of people wanted him to resign before the end of his term.Facing roaring discontent from below, and isolation from even his own partners in government, Yoon took the nuclear option to save his own skin, especially from a probable prosecution. So, whilst he claimed that declaring martial law was done in the name of defending South Korea from “pro-North Korean forces,” in effect, this was a coup against the vast majority of society in defence of his own personal interests.Yoon’s ‘Coup’ ThwartedYoon’s desperate and stupid adventure failed to deter anyone. Immediately after martial law was declared, large crowds of people descended on the National Assembly building and clashed with the military and police. On top of this, many unions leading ongoing strikes immediately declared they would defy the ban on collective action.Yoon’s desperate and stupid adventure failed to deter anyone / Image: Hashflu, Wikimedia CommonsWith the military deployed to seize control of the National Assembly building and news of some MPs even having been arrested, over 190 MPs still managed to enter the parliament and vote to lift the emergency martial law. However, it is very likely the MPs would never have been able to get into the building had there not been any crowd present.The US, a key player in South Korea and de facto top commander of South Korea’s military, was completely against the move on the part of Yoon. Hours after the declaration of martial law, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell tacitly expressed his opposition, explaining that the United States was watching events in South Korea with “grave concern” and that he hoped “any political disputes would be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law”, according to Reuters.The US is entirely responsible for the sordid situation in South Korea: beginning with the division of Korea, backing years of military dictatorships in the South, and most recently encouraging Yoon to escalate tension with the North. However, the United States is now in a position of relative decline. They are no longer able to assert their interests in every corner of the world, with other smaller powers having a lot more room for manoeuvre. They are therefore relying on countries like South Korea to push back against China. For that reason, there is no way they can allow an ally like this to suddenly become destabilised through the adventure of one self-interested politician. Shortly after the National Assembly voted to lift martial law, troops appeared to have left the building and given up on the attempt for occupation. However, the military then declared that martial law would be upheld until President Yoon personally called it off.In response to the defiance of the military, the crowds outside the National Assembly hall refused to disperse. The KCTU also declared an indefinite general strike until Yoon is removed.In the end, Yoon Suk-yeol had no choice but to admit that he is powerless to square off against the almighty forces railed against him. At around 4:30 AM local time, Yoon shambolically went on television to declare the martial law lifted. This pathetic ‘coup’ lasted a grand total of around 6 hours.Reality of the state and capitalist crisis exposed!Although Yoon has backed down on martial law, he has opened Pandora’s box. Through his self-serving idiocy, he exposed the whole nature of South Korea’s bourgeois democracy. Even before this farce, Yoon and all of his predecessors from both major political camps of South Korea have used the hobby horse of “national security” to suppress any genuine dissent from below, especially the labour movement. As with any bourgeois democracy, there are always certain fail-safes that the bourgeoisie can use in order to massively restrict democracy, which can be used against any individual or party should the fundamental interests of the ruling class really be threatened. In order to be useful, however, these need to be kept in the dark until they are needed. Although Yoon has backed down on martial law, he has opened Pandora’s box / Image: 서울의소리 VoiceOfSeoul, Wikimedia CommonsYoon’s actions have brought these fail-safes out from the dark and into the light. To make matters worse for the ruling class, this has been done not to save their system, but to save the skin of one individual. Many South Koreans, who may have thought themselves to reside in a ‘democratic’, ‘Western-style’ system will now have had their consciousness shaken. On face value, by triggering this fail-safe at an entirely inappropriate time, Yoon may appear to be a uniquely idiotic politician. After all, this act exposes rather than protects the ruling class. At the same time, around the world, we see weird and wonderful characters coming to govern hitherto powerful and stable capitalist powers, or politicians previously considered to be a “safe pair of hands” taking measures that are against their rational class and national interests. Some are losing their minds trying to square the circle of defending the system, like Macron in France. Others, like Yoon, seem to be a maverick who puts the whole system in jeopardy for his own personal interest. All this is but a reflection of the crying contradiction within capitalist societies, where the ruling class, as Lenin explained, cannot rule as before. Yoon Suk-yeol is but a manifestation of this reality in South Korea. But the very same social crises also exist in China, Japan and Taiwan. The very same instability that exploded under Yoon’s term is coming for the whole region, and with it a furious tide of class struggle.Bring down the government and the whole system!After his wanton attempt to put the entire country under martial law, Yoon legally remains the President of the nation, and his term will not end until 2027! However, whilst he has retracted the martial law, things will not go back to how they were.The masses, already deeply disgusted with Yoon’s government, will not be in the mood to let this travesty go unpunished. As said, the support for his resignation is already high. With this provocation, a movement for his removal is unavoidable.This is a mood that the opposition Democratic Party would be happy to take advantage of, in order to try to bring themselves back into power. This is where Marxists must advance a serious warning to the South Korean workers and youth. We must not trust these people for one second.We must not forget that the Democratic Party is but a twin-star to the conservative camp. Together, they merely take it in turns to govern South Korean capitalism. It was this very party that created the conditions for Yoon’s rise in the first place. The masses, already deeply disgusted with Yoon’s government, will not be in the mood to let this travesty go unpunished / Image: 서울의소리 VoiceOfSeoul, Wikimedia CommonsAlthough the Democratic Party is now led by Lee Jae-myung (이재명), a firebrand figure once hailed as the “South Korean Bernie Sanders,” we at the RCI noted years ago that the fact he is heading a capitalist party means that he will inevitably submit to bourgeois interests. Indeed, it was this very submission that was a part of why he lost to Yoon Suk-yeol by a slim margin in 2022.The Democratic Party now has the wind in its sails. It will try to take measures to remove Yoon from office… within the legal channels allowed for by the decidedly anti-democratic constitution of the Republic of Korea. However, this attempt will only be to bring themselves and their bourgeois paymasters back to power. They will once again brand themselves as the “people’s democratic champions” for reforms, only to set the interests of the working masses aside once they take back charge.The Korean workers and youth must fight to topple Yoon and the system he represents through class independent means. Marxists fully agree with the KCTU’s call for an indefinite general strike to bring down Yoon. This would be a way to give the South Korean workers a truly independent path to fight the system. To make such a general strike successful, however, the KCTU must pull out all the stops to organise for it. This means they must mobilise their entire membership across all industries they organise in, encompassing workers in all companies. The local union branches could also use this chance to start reaching unorganised workers and welcoming them into this collective action and even recruit them as future union members. Above all, the KCTU should present a programme for society that does not end with bringing down Yoon, but for a society that frees the masses from the grips of the large corporations as well. If the KCTU successfully organised this general strike to the point that it shuts down society and brings down the government, it would be a tremendous step forward for the consciousness of the South Korean masses, who would have a concrete demonstration of their power and weight in society. It would also set an example well beyond its borders.The KCTU leadership, which has correctly broken with all bourgeois parties, should also waste no more time in making good on their previous proposal of establishing a true mass workers’ party in South Korea. All parties of the bourgeoisie have proven themselves to be utterly against the interests of the working class. It is time that our class had its own party. No matter which capitalist politician replaces Yoon at the end of this drama, none of them can solve the crisis in society or the impact of the destabilisation of world relations on South Korea. For this reason, the instability in politics will only continue. The working class urgently needs their own class alternative that fights for a workers’ government, one that can truly end the thousand and one worsening problems of everyday life under capitalism. The present situation provides a historic opportunity to achieve this.If the working class of South Korea were to step up and take charge of their own destiny, it would have an electrifying effect on the masses all across the region because the same situation exists here as does everywhere. This is why we at the RCI urges all sincere South Korean class militants who fight for worker’s democracy and the socialist transformation of society to join us. You have a role to play in this titanic struggle, and there is no time to waste.