Seoul Dec. 4, 9:42 a.m.
Live Updates: South Korean President Backs Down From Martial Law
President Yoon Suk Yeol formally lifted martial law in a cabinet meeting early Wednesday, six hours after he declared it, and after protesters filled the street, calling for his removal from office.
Choe Sang-HunJohn Yoon and Jin Yu Young
Reporting from Seoul
President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea on Wednesday morning lifted the emergency martial law declaration he had imposed the night before, bowing to pressure by lawmakers and protesters after his audacious attempt to overcome the political deadlock that has hobbled his tenure.
His declaration of martial law — in an unscheduled televised address late Tuesday — incited political chaos within one of America’s closest allies in Asia and evoked memories of the dictatorial postwar regimes that stifled peaceful dissent and created a police state. But Mr. Yoon’s ploy appeared to backfire over the course of one tense night, and before the sun rose in Seoul on Wednesday, he had backed down.
As largely peaceful demonstrations arose in Seoul, the National Assembly voted 190-0 to rescind martial law, a swift rebuke of Mr. Yoon’s response to the political crisis. Hours later, Mr. Yoon convened his cabinet, which agreed to end martial law.
The consequences of his extraordinary gambit were unclear. Thousands of protesters gathered outside the National Assembly, chanting, “End martial law!” Others filled a section of an eight-lane road to call for Mr. Yoon’s arrest. A trade union with more than a million members declared an “indefinite general strike” and said it would gather in downtown Seoul early Wednesday to demand Mr. Yoon’s resignation.
Even the leader of Mr. Yoon’s own political party, Han Dong-hoon of the People Power Party, criticized the move, calling his declaration “wrong.” In a show of defiance, Mr. Han shook hands with Lee Jae-myung, the main opposition leader, when lawmakers gathered to vote against martial law.
Mr. Yoon, who is deeply unpopular, accused the opposition of plotting an “insurgency” and “trying to overthrow the free democracy.” Early Wednesday, he characterized his decision as an act “of national resolve against the anti-state forces that are trying to paralyze the essential functions of the state and disrupt the constitutional order of our liberal democracy.”
It was the first time a South Korean president had declared martial law since military dictatorship ended in the country in the late 1980s.
Here’s what else to know:
Calls for impeachment: The National Assembly can impeach the president if more than two-thirds of lawmakers vote for it. Mr. Yoon’s party controls 108 seats in the 300-member legislature. Thousands of people have held weekend rallies in downtown Seoul in recent months, calling for his impeachment and accusing him of incompetence, corruption and abuse of power.
Political paralysis: Elected after a close race in 2022, Mr. Yoon has been in a near-constant political standoff with the opposition, which controls the National Assembly. In a nationally televised speech on Tuesday night, he denounced the opposition for repeatedly using its majority to impeach members of his cabinet and block his government’s budget plans. This has “paralyzed the administration,” Mr. Yoon said. “The National Assembly, which should have been the foundation of free democracy, has become a monster that destroys it.”
Effects of martial law: Army Gen. Park An-su, who was appointed martial law commander, banned “all political activities,” including political party activities and citizens’ rallies, and labor activities. Gen. Park said in a decree that “all news media and publications are under the control of martial law command,” warning that those who spread “fake news” could be arrested without a court warrant.
U.S. relations: President Biden has put a special emphasis on South Korea, choosing it as the first non-U.S. site for his annual international conclave, the Summit for Democracy. But the American relationship with South Korea could face its biggest test in decades.
Korean Americans: Across the United States, Korean Americans have been glued to their phones and calling relatives and friends back in South Korea as they try to make sense of the rapidly developing events in Seoul.
Protesters have gathered at the edge of Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, as the rush hour commute unfolds around them. Some are holding signs calling for President Yoon’s resignation.
Police officers in bright-green vests, some of them holding riot shields, are milling around the square and the entrance to nearby Gyeongbokgung Palace.
The South Korean stock market began the local trading day on Wednesday roughly 1.5 percent lower than it ended on Tuesday, after the whiplash from the president’s decision to declare martial law then reverse it.
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There were doubts overnight, but the stock market in Seoul is set to open in about 30 minutes, at 9 a.m. local time. Korean stocks that trade abroad fell, but pared their losses after President Yoon Suk Yeol lifted his emergency martial law declaration. The Korean won has recovered somewhat against the U.S. dollar, losing about 1 percent of its value since Yoon imposed the order.
Financial policymakers held an emergency meeting in Seoul last night, and pledged “unlimited” support to address “potential market instability following the declaration of martial law.” The central bank is set to hold an emergency meeting this morning.
Protesters in front of the National Assembly in Seoul chanted, “Arrest Yoon Suk Yeol,” and called for his removal from office.
Yoon Suk Yeol won South Korea’s highest office in 2022 by a threadbare margin, the closest since his country abandoned military rule in the 1980s and began holding free presidential elections.
Just over two years later, Mr. Yoon’s brief declaration of martial law on Tuesday shocked South Koreans who had hoped that tumultuous era of military intervention was behind them. Thousands of protesters gathered in Seoul to call for his arrest. Their country, regarded as a model of cultural soft power and an Asian democratic stalwart, had suddenly taken a sharp turn in another direction.
But the events that led to Mr. Yoon’s stunning declaration on Tuesday — and his decision six hours later to lift the decree after Parliament voted to block it — were set in motion well before his razor-thin victory. They were a dramatic illustration of South Korea’s bitterly polarized politics and the deep societal discontent beneath the surface of its rising global might.
It all came to a head when Mr. Yoon, once a hard-charging prosecutor who investigated former presidents, found himself on the receiving end of a political onslaught by a galvanized opposition.
Victory, but no mandate
Mr. Yoon, a conservative leader, has never been popular in South Korea. He won election by a margin of only 0.8 percentage points. The vote, analysts said, was more a referendum on his liberal predecessor’s failures than an endorsement of Mr. Yoon.
The bitterness of the campaign was reflected in a statement by Mr. Yoon’s main opponent, Lee Jae-myung, who would go on to lead the opposition to the Yoon government in Parliament.
“I sincerely ask the president-elect to lead the country over the divide and conflict and open an era of unity and harmony,” he said.
Mr. Yoon, 63, was an unlikely figure to guide the nation to reconciliation. As prosecutor general, he helped convict and imprison a former leader of his own party, Park Geun-hye, after her impeachment as president. Specializing in corruption cases, he had also pursued another former president and the head of Samsung.
As Mr. Yoon investigated Ms. Park, the administration he worked for continued a long pattern in South Korea in which new leaders launch inquiries into their predecessors, contributing to the rancorous nature of the country’s politics.
Running for office, Mr. Yoon vehemently criticized his former boss, the progressive president Moon Jae-in, for meeting with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jung-un, but failing to stop his nuclear ambitions. He called for ratcheting up military drills and for strict enforcement of sanctions on the North, envisioning a South Korea that wielded its influence as a major U.S. ally in Asia.
“Peace is meaningless unless it is backed by power,” Mr. Yoon said during the campaign. “War can be avoided only when we acquire an ability to launch pre-emptive strikes and show our willingness to use them.”
The approach won him favor in Washington, where the Biden administration was glad to have South Korea align itself more closely with American positions as a bulwark against China. But it did little for him at home, where he was locked in perpetual war with the opposition even as his domestic challenges mounted.
A cauldron of discontent
Despite South Korea’s growing influence around the world — in business, film, television and music — vertiginous inequality has fueled widespread discontent at home. Skyrocketing home prices have forced people to live in ever-smaller spaces at ever-greater cost. Recent college graduates have struggled to find suitable work, sometimes accusing older generations of locking them out.
Many young people, facing uncertain economic prospects, are reluctant to marry or have children, and the country has both a rapidly aging population and the world’s lowest birthrate. Increasingly, voters have blamed their political opponents, as well as immigrants and feminists.
Critics of Mr. Yoon, whose campaign promised to abolish South Korea’s ministry of gender equality, accused him of playing on some of those divides, saying he stoked biases, especially among young men.
From the start, however, Mr. Yoon faced two obstacles.
The opposition Democratic Party held on to its majority in the National Assembly and then expanded it in parliamentary elections in April, making him the first South Korean leader in decades to never have a majority in Parliament. And then there were his own dismal approval ratings.
Mr. Yoon’s toxic relationship with opposition lawmakers — and their vehement efforts to oppose him at every turn — paralyzed his pro-business agenda for two years, hindering his efforts to cut corporate taxes, overhaul the national pension system and address housing prices.
An election fueled by vitriol
Mr. Yoon’s party had seen the 2024 elections as an opportunity to win back the chamber.
Instead the crises and scandals built. A Halloween celebration became a deadly catastrophe, and North Korea ramped up its threats. Doctors went on strike, describing a medical system of harsh working conditions and low wages. Allegations of corruption involving Mr. Yoon’s wife and a $2,200 Dior pouch roiled his party, with one senior member comparing her to Marie Antoinette.
Protests organized on social media by rival political activists became common, with a rough division of churchgoers and other older citizens on the right, and mostly younger people on the left.
The election devolved into vicious recriminations, with left-wing protesters calling Mr. Yoon a “national traitor” over what they called his anti-feminist policies and attacks on news outlets he accused of spreading “fake news.” They also criticized him for the Halloween crowd crush and his efforts to improve ties with Japan, the onetime colonial ruler of Korea.
Opposition leaders warned that Mr. Yoon was taking South Korea onto the path of “dictatorship.” In turn, members of Mr. Yoon’s party called the opposition “criminals,” and voters on the right rallied against what they called “pro-North Korean communists.”
(Mr. Yoon echoed that language on Tuesday in his declaration of martial law, saying he was issuing it “to protect a free South Korea from the North Korean communist forces, eliminate shameless pro-North Korean and anti-state forces.”)
The election in April ultimately granted the opposition one of the biggest parliamentary majorities in South Korea in decades.
Many South Koreans called it “Judgment Day.” But the outcome also solidified the deadlock in the government, restricting either party’s ability to agree on the national budget or address the public’s complaints. The acrimony only deepened as the opposition moved to impeach several members of Mr. Yoon’s government.
In the aftermath of the April vote, the prime minister and many of the president’s top aides resigned. Mr. Yoon’s chief of staff relayed a message from the president, who was quoted as saying he would “overhaul the way the government is run.”
But by Tuesday night, Mr. Yoon had turned startlingly defiant. He declared that “the National Assembly, which should have been the foundation of free democracy, has become a monster that destroys it.”
Not long after, as protesters rushed to the gates of the National Assembly, lawmakers voted to lift the president’s measure. Mr. Lee, the opposition leader, who survived a stabbing attack in January and later staged a hunger strike against the Yoon government, said Mr. Yoon had “betrayed the people.”
Hours later, Mr. Yoon said he would comply with the legislature’s order. But even then, with his political future now thrown into profound uncertainty, he added a plea.
“I call on the National Assembly,” he said, “to immediately stop the outrageous behavior that is paralyzing the functioning of the country with impeachments, legislative manipulation and budget manipulation.”
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While lifting martial law, President Yoon did not comment on his political future, only reiterating his demand that the opposition stop using its parliamentary majority to “paralyze” his government. But opposition lawmakers demanded that he step down, calling his martial law “unconstitutional” and a “failed coup.”
The National Assembly can impeach the president if more than two-thirds of lawmakers vote for it. Yoon’s party controls 108 seats in the 300-member legislature. Thousands of people have held weekend rallies in downtown Seoul in recent months, calling for the president's impeachment and accusing him of incompetence, corruption and abuse of power.
Minutes after South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, declared martial law on Tuesday night through a decree, Lee Jae-myung, the main opposition leader, called on his supporters and members of his party to gather at the National Assembly.
Mr. Lee wanted lawmakers to pass a binding resolution to nullify the martial law decree, and he warned that the president might order the military to arrest them to stop the vote.
“The people should defend this nation,” Mr. Lee said during a live broadcast on social media on his way to the National Assembly in Seoul. “Please come to the National Assembly.” Thousands did.
Here is what to know about Mr. Lee.
From sweatshop worker to politician
Mr. Lee, whose parents cleaned public toilets for a living, spent his teenage years as a sweatshop worker, nearly losing his left hand.
Now 60, he worked for two decades as a labor lawyer defending workers’ rights before entering politics in the mid-2000s and rising up the ranks of the Democratic Party of Korea, becoming a mayor and then a provincial governor.
In April 2020, the Democrats won a supermajority in the National Assembly lasting four years.
Mr. Lee ran for the presidency in 2022, pushing for social programs that were widely popular among his supporters, like universal basic income and personal loans subsidized and backed by the national government.
But he lost narrowly to Mr. Yoon in a contest decided by less than 1 percentage point. Mr. Yoon’s election ensured a divided government in South Korea.
A thorn in Yoon’s side
Instead of stepping aside after his electoral loss, Mr. Lee vaulted back to the center of South Korean politics within a few months. He won a seat in the National Assembly and became leader of his party, making him the central opposition figure in government.
In legislative elections held in April 2024, Mr. Lee led his party to another landslide victory, blowing out Mr. Yoon’s hope that an election victory could give him momentum in executing his agenda, such as health care reform. Mr. Lee tightened his grip on his Democratic Party, which he now leads.
With its supermajority in the National Assembly, Mr. Lee’s Democratic Party has repeatedly blocked Mr. Yoon’s proposed budget for the next year.
The opposition party has also voted to impeach Mr. Yoon’s close allies in the government. Tensions built up between the parties and the two men.
Charges of bribery, and a stabbing
Mr. Lee’s supporters often see him as a strong progressive force capable of breaking through establishment politics in South Korea. But Mr. Lee’s rise in politics has been marked by legal trouble.
In November, a judge found Mr. Lee guilty of lying during the 2022 presidential campaign about a bribery scandal involving development projects when he was mayor of Seongnam. (Under South Korean election law, it is a felony to deliberately lie while on the campaign trail.) He was handed a one-year suspended prison term.
Mr. Lee said he would appeal, but he cannot run for president again in 2027 if he loses the appeal. He has also been indicted on bribery and other criminal charges, accusations he denies.
Mr. Yoon’s conservative People Power Party has denounced Mr. Lee as a “criminal suspect” and has used the indictments in its campaign messaging. Under Mr. Yoon, state prosecutors have pursued Mr. Lee, his wife and his former aides with a series of investigations.
The opposition, in return, has accused Mr. Yoon, who was a prosecutor before he was elected president in 2022, of using the Ministry of Justice to stage Mr. Lee’s political persecution
In January, a disgruntled older man stabbed Mr. Lee in the neck with a knife, saying that South Korea was “in a civil war” and that he wanted to “cut the head” off the country’s “pro-North Korean” left wing.
His assailant was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
A scramble to defeat a decree of martial law
Before backing down from his martial law order, President Yoon said he was resorting to the extraordinary measure to “eradicate” threats from “the shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces.”
Mr. Lee quickly called on lawmakers to beat back the order, and many rushed to the assembly to cast their votes. “My colleagues and I will defend our democracy with life,” he said, “but our powers might fall short.”
As parliamentary aides from major parties barricaded key entrances with chairs and desks to borrow time to pass the resolution, armed military personnel tried to enter the assembly building, located in the middle of Seoul’s busy financial district.
Troops smashed windows, leading some aides and opposition supporters to spray the contents of a fire extinguisher at the military, video footage on social media showed.
Jo Seoung-lae, chief spokesman of the Democratic Party, claimed that the military personnel who had entered the National Assembly had been trying to arrest Mr. Lee and other officials.
It was “a coup d’état and a plot to overthrow the government,” Mr. Jo said.
Hours after Mr. Yoon declared martial law, and after a few scuffles, the National Assembly passed the resolution to rescind martial law by a unanimous vote, 190-0.
Soon, the military retreated from the assembly.
“I still don’t feel like this is real, in the 21st century, in South Korea, but this is happening,” Mr. Lee said before Mr. Yoon said he would gather his cabinet and call off his order imposing martial law.
Choe Sang-Hun contributed reporting
President Yoon formally lifted martial law in a cabinet meeting early Wednesday, six hours after he declared it, according to the government. The South Korean military said that all troops mobilized under martial law have returned to their units.
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Across the United States, Korean Americans have been glued to their phones and calling relatives and friends back in South Korea as they try to make sense of the rapidly developing events in Seoul.
Abraham Kim, the executive director of the Council of Korean Americans, said that the organization was “watching closely” and holding out “hope for Korea to maintain a strong democracy and for martial law to end peacefully.”
Jongjoon Kim, 56, who owns an insurance agency in Annandale, Va., said that he had been “surprised and shocked” when he first learned about President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law. Since moving to the United States in 1998 to pursue graduate studies, Mr. Kim said he has not followed politics back in the country where he grew up as closely as he once did.
But seeing the images of demonstrations outside the National Assembly in Seoul transported him back to the 1980s, when he and other university students protested in the streets against the repressive military dictator Chun Doo-hwan.
Back then, he said, Mr. Kim felt fearful for the fate of the protesters and for South Korea. But this time around, he said he was confident that the country’s democratic institutions could weather the storm. If anything, Mr. Kim, who identifies as a Democrat, said he was more concerned about the uncertain political situation in the United States as President-elect Donald J. Trump prepares to begin his second term.
Still, he said, the political situation in Seoul was “kind of shameful.” In the decades since Mr. Kim left South Korea, the country had achieved so much, he said.
Economic prosperity. A Nobel Prize-winning author. K-pop as a global phenomenon.
“I don’t know why the politics is going back to the ’80s,” Mr. Kim said.
Homeland politics have long been a source of interest among Korean Americans, as they are in most diaspora communities. More than 1.8 million Korean Americans live in the United States, making up one of the country’s largest Asian American groups. Most are first-generation immigrants who emigrated from South Korea to pursue educational or job opportunities in the three decades after a landmark 1965 immigration law was passed, settling in places like California, New York, Northern Virginia, and more recently in metro Atlanta.
Many have maintained ties with family and friends in South Korea and still closely follow politics there by reading one of the many Korean-language newspapers published within the diaspora community. And while there have been bitter political divisions in the community at times, the reaction among Korean Americans on the issue of Mr. Yoon and martial law seemed at least initially to be unified.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re conservative or if they’re progressive,” said Chang Yul Lee, a reporter and a deputy editor with the Washington edition of The Korea Times. “Everyone is saying the president is crazy.”
Kang Min Ki, 20, and Lee Tae Yun, 20, university students from Incheon, South Korea, celebrated outside the National Assembly in Seoul on Wednesday after President Yoon said he would lift the emergency declaration of martial law.
President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea delivered the following address on Wednesday morning.
I declared emergency martial law at 11 p.m. last night as an act of national resolve against the anti-state forces that are trying to paralyze the essential functions of the state and disrupt the constitutional order of our liberal democracy.
However, a short time ago, the National Assembly demanded that martial law be lifted, so I withdrew the military forces that had been deployed to carry out martial law. I will lift martial law as soon as we have a quorum in the cabinet. It’s early in the morning, so we don’t have a quorum yet.
But I call on the National Assembly to immediately stop the outrageous behavior that is paralyzing the functioning of the country with impeachments, legislative manipulation and budget manipulation.
Thank you.
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SKIP ADVERTISEMENTPresident Yoon said he was waiting for members of his cabinet to arrive so that he could formally lift martial law, which had been in place for five and a half hours.
President Yoon said he would end martial law as soon as he convened his cabinet. He said troops had withdrawn from the National Assembly after lawmakers passed a resolution demanding an end to martial law.
The United States, Britain and the United Nations expressed alarm on Tuesday after President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea declared emergency martial law, prompting street protests and a vote by national lawmakers to lift the order.
In announcing martial law, Mr. Yoon, who is a deeply unpopular and divisive leader to many in South Korea, accused the opposition of plotting an “insurgency” and “trying to overthrow the free democracy.”
After Mr. Yoon issued his decree, security forces cordoned off the National Assembly building, but a number of lawmakers were able to gain entry and quickly voted to reverse the presidential order. Thousands of protesters gathered outside the assembly complex in largely peaceful demonstrations.
Hours after the vote, Mr. Yoon said he would lift the emergency declaration of martial law as soon as he could convene his cabinet. He said military forces that had been deployed to enforce the decree had also been withdrawn.
The United States, a close ally of South Korea’s, was watching the events “with grave concern,” the deputy secretary of state, Kurt Campbell, said on Tuesday, before Mr. Yoon said he was lifting martial law. He said that U.S. officials “at every level” were reaching out to their counterparts in Washington and Seoul.
Mr. Campbell said that the U.S.-South Korea alliance was “ironclad, and we stand by Korea in their time of uncertainty.” He added that the Biden administration had “every hope and expectation that any political disputes will be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law.”
The United States maintains a military force in South Korea, a legacy of the long-dormant conflict with North Korea, and South Korea is a key part of Washington’s web of alliances around the Pacific.
A Pentagon spokesman, Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, said on Tuesday that there had been no change in the U.S. military presence in South Korea.
Mr. Yoon, who was honored at a state dinner at the White House in April 2023, did not notify the United States in advance of his decision to declare martial law, according to a State Department spokesman, Vedant Patel.
Asked by a reporter in Washington about the National Assembly vote to lift martial law, Mr. Patel said, “Certainly, it is our hope and expectation that the laws and regulations of a particular country are abided by — by that particular country.”
Britain’s minister for the Indo-Pacific, Catherine West, said in a statement that Britain was “deeply concerned” by the events in South Korea.
“Our Embassy in Seoul continues to monitor developments and is in touch with the Korean authorities,” she said in the statement, which was issued before Mr. Yoon said he had decided to lift martial law. “We call for a peaceful resolution to the situation, in accordance with the law and the constitution of the Republic of Korea.”
A United Nations spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, said the global body was monitoring the situation “very closely, with concern.” Mr. Dujarric said that events in South Korea were unfolding too quickly for the United Nations to have a clear assessment of the crisis.
Michael Crowley contributed reporting.
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SKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, one of the largest unions and the country’s most militant labor group, declared an “indefinite general strike” until “the resignation of President Yoon.” The confederation has more than a million union members, who include assembly line workers of Hyundai Motors. According to a statement issued by the labor group, union members will gather in downtown Seoul early Wednesday to demand Yoon’s resignation.
The chief spokesman of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea, Jo Seoung-lae, said that the military personnel who entered the National Assembly premises tried to arrest the opposition leader, Lee Jae-myung; the ruling party leader, Han Dong-hoon; and the speaker of the National Assembly, Woo Won-shik.
Jo said the party “confirmed” such efforts after reviewing closed circuit camera footage. “Trying to disable” the National Assembly’s authority to call off the martial law decree “is a coup d’etat and a plot to overthrow the government,” Jo said.
The mood outside the National Assembly is noticeably calmer at 4 a.m. Many police officers have left. Military vehicles have withdrawn. A few hundred protesters are still here.
Military vehicles leaving the scene slowly made their way through a dense crowd of police and protesters after the National Assembly voted to end President Yoon Suk Yeol’s decree of martial law.
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For decades, South Korea has been one of the most important U.S. allies in Asia — not only because nearly 30,000 American troops are stationed there, but also because it stands as a beacon of democracy in a region where powerful authoritarian nations vie with democratic ones.
President Biden has put a special emphasis on South Korea, choosing it as the first non-U.S. site for his annual international conclave, the Summit for Democracy. And in 2023, he hosted President Yoon Suk Yeol for a state dinner at the White House, where the tuxedo-clad Mr. Yoon sang “American Pie” to an adoring audience. Mr. Biden has also relied on Mr. Yoon to provide munitions for Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion.
Now, with Mr. Yoon having imposed martial law after wildly accusing the opposition party of conspiring with North Korea to undermine him, the American relationship with South Korea could face its biggest test in decades.
And Mr. Biden, who has used democracy versus autocracy as a defining framework of his foreign policy, will have to make hard choices on how to handle the crisis, after years of cultivating relations with Mr. Yoon, a conservative leader, and enhancing military ties to better counter China, North Korea and Russia.
Mr. Yoon’s move appeared to catch the Biden administration by surprise. Hosting Mr. Yoon at the White House in April 2023, Mr. Biden told Mr. Yoon that the two men “both understand that our democracies and our people are our greatest sources of strength.”
On Tuesday afternoon in Washington, the White House National Security Council released a terse statement, using an abbreviation for South Korea’s formal name, the Republic of Korea: “The administration is in contact with the R.O.K. government and is monitoring the situation closely as we work to learn more. The U.S. was not notified in advance of this announcement. We are seriously concerned by the developments we are seeing on the ground in the R.O.K.”
Officials said that aides had briefed Mr. Biden, who was visiting Angola.
Events moved quickly in Seoul early on Wednesday. The National Assembly voted to end martial law, and members of Mr. Yoon’s party did not come out in support of him, prompting Mr. Yoon to back down. But analysts said they expected weeks of political conflict, including his possible impeachment.
“It was a gamble he took to try to impose political control at a time when he feels frustrated by his inability to carry out his vision for the country,” said Jean H. Lee, a Korea expert at the East-West Center in Hawaii.
“But at the end of the day,” she added, “President Yoon values South Korea’s alliance with the United States, its place in the world as a leading global economy and its reputation as a vibrant democracy in Asia.”
South Korea had long periods of military rule after the Korean War halted with an armistice in 1953, and it did not become a democracy until 1987.
There was speculation in Washington that Mr. Yoon might have chosen this moment because the U.S. government is in a transition from the Biden administration to the second Trump one, and because Mr. Biden is overseas. Mr. Yoon, a first-term president who barely won the 2022 election, has a low approval rating, and his move against the opposition party and the legislature has echoes of the effort by Donald J. Trump to prevent Mr. Biden from taking office after he won the 2020 election.
President-elect Donald J. Trump had no immediate reaction on Tuesday, and it is unclear how he might view Mr. Yoon’s move. The South Korean leader has been determined to court Mr. Trump, who often gripes that Seoul should pay Washington billions more for the presence of American troops. Mr. Yoon’s office even disclosed that he was working on his long-dormant golf game so that he could hit the links with Mr. Trump.
At a U.S.-Japan diplomatic event in Washington, Kurt M. Campbell, the deputy secretary of state and former Asia adviser to Mr. Biden, said that “our alliance with the R.O.K. is ironclad, and we stand by Korea in their time of uncertainty.”
He added that “we have every hope and expectation that any political disputes will be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law.”
Joseph Yun, a former ambassador and special envoy for North Korea in the Trump administration, said in an interview that Mr. Yoon’s move was an earthquake in domestic politics and would raise doubts about him among allied nations.
“This is a big indictment domestically and internationally of Yoon’s judgment,” he said.
The upheaval is particularly stinging for an American president who has made the promotion of democracy one of his top priorities, in part because of the rise of anti-democratic forces in the United States. Seoul hosted this year’s installment of the global democracy summit that Mr. Biden launched three years ago.
At the opening ceremony in Seoul, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken hailed South Korea as a democratic model, saying that it was fitting, “even a little bit poignant,” that the country was hosting the event.
South Korea, Mr. Blinken noted proudly, was “a nation that transformed, over a single generation, into one of the strongest, most dynamic democracies in the world, a champion of democracy for the world.”
The declaration of martial law also raises questions about what the Pentagon might do in an unstable South Korea with its nearly 30,000 troops and assets in the country. United States Forces Korea operates under the Indo-Pacific Command and in coordination with the South Korean military. American soldiers are posted by the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea and in bases elsewhere in South Korea, including in Seoul, where U.S. soldiers walk the streets in uniform.
One of Mr. Biden’s main strategies for trying to establish deterrence against China and North Korea has been to build up military relations with allies in Asia. He established a new trilateral security partnership with South Korea and Japan. Last year, he hosted Mr. Yoon and Fumio Kishida, then the prime minister of Japan, at Camp David in Maryland to announce the new arrangement, an important achievement given the historical enmity between South Korea and Japan.
Mr. Biden called the two nations “capable and indispensable allies.”
In his remarks, Mr. Yoon said that “the ties between our three countries, which are the most advanced liberal democracies in the region and major economies leading advanced technology and scientific innovation, are more important than ever.”
The three nations, he added, have proclaimed they “will bolster the rules-based international order and play key roles to enhance regional security and prosperity based on our shared values of freedom, human rights and rule of law.”
Adding to the uncertainty are questions about Mr. Trump’s plans for the Korean Peninsula.
In his first term as president, Mr. Trump rattled South Korea’s political leadership with complaints that Seoul should be paying more to the United States for the presence of American troops, a position he has reiterated in recent months.
The Biden administration signed an agreement with South Korea in early October under which Seoul will pay about $1.1 billion per year to defray the cost of maintaining U.S. troops in the country — a policy that American presidents have supported for decades in the name of national security, not profit.
Soon after, Mr. Trump declared that South Korea, which he called “a money machine,” would be “paying us $10 billion a year” if he were president. The latest security agreement struck with the Biden administration lasts from 2026 to 2030, although Mr. Trump could insist on renegotiating it.
Mr. Trump also invested months in a dramatic personal courtship of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, whom he tried without success to persuade to shutter Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. Mr. Trump had a partner in President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, who wanted rapprochement with North Korea.
Mr. Yoon has taken a harder line toward Mr. Kim, although he has said he is open to talks if Mr. Kim shows a willingness to denuclearize. But Mr. Kim has adopted a more bellicose attitude toward South Korea and the United States, and has not shown any desire for diplomacy. He signed a mutual defense treaty with Russia this year, and sent troops to help the Russian military in its war against Ukraine.
As for Mr. Trump, his own intentions about possibly renewing dialogue with Mr. Kim are unclear. But Mr. Yun, the veteran diplomat, said he expected Mr. Trump to try to engage again in one-on-one diplomacy.
“He likes a deal,” Mr. Yun said. “Everyone has said this is a difficult deal, and he likes to deliver on a difficult deal.”
The leader of the President Yoon’s party in the National Assembly, Choo Kyung-ho, told reporters that he was not notified about Yoon’s intention to declare martial law and learned about the president’s action “through news reports.” He also said many members of his party could not enter the National Assembly to vote against the martial law decree because the military and police blocked lawmakers from entering the parliament premises.
Armed martial law troops, as well as police officers, withdrew from inside the National Assembly building, according to National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik and local media. But President Yoon has yet to respond to the Assembly’s demand for an end to martial law.
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Reporting from Seoul
The nation’s constitution states that when the National Assembly requests the lifting of a martial law via vote, “the president shall comply.” It’s been two hours since lawmakers voted to request the order be lifted. President Yoon has not issued any statements after the vote.
It’s 3 a.m., and the crowds have grown larger and the chants louder at the National Assembly. Many protesters plan to stay out into the morning. Some are organizing trips for people from other parts of the country to join them in Seoul.
In a sign of South Korea’s robust protest culture, protesters were out with printed and laminated posters within hours of President Yoon's declaration. They read: “Abolish martial law.”
President Biden has been briefed on the situation in South Korea, according to the White House.
The United States was not notified in advance of the decision by South Korea's president to declare martial law, according to Sean Savett, a spokesman for the U.S. national security council. He said the U.S. government is “monitoring the situation closely as we work to learn more,” Savett said, adding, “We are seriously concerned by the developments we are seeing on the ground.”
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President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea, who declared martial law on Tuesday night, has served a term plagued with problems and scandals following his narrow electoral win in 2022.
Mr. Yoon, a former prosecutor, won the presidency with less than half the vote, by a margin of less than 1 percent — a result that was widely viewed as a condemnation of his progressive predecessor rather than an enthusiastic endorsement of Mr. Yoon. As a candidate and in office he has allied himself with a wave of anti-feminist sentiment.
In office, the president has been in a near-constant political standoff with the opposition, which controls Parliament, ever since, while his approval rating in polls has fallen sharply.
His call for martial law, which allows him to clamp down on media and political opponents, was the first such declaration in South Korea in decades, but was foreshadowed by some of his previous actions in office. Mr. Yoon, who is seen in South Korea as a deeply divisive leader, accused the opposition of plotting an “insurgency” and “trying to overthrow the free democracy.”
Since his election, Mr. Yoon has used lawsuits, state regulators and criminal investigations to clamp down on speech that he called disinformation, efforts that were largely aimed at news organizations. The police and prosecutors repeatedly raided the homes and newsrooms of journalists whom his office has accused of spreading “fake news.”
Mr. Yoon has also been accused of using his power to advance his own interests. He was accused this year of pressuring the Defense Ministry to whitewash an investigation into the death of a South Korean marine in 2023, and vetoed a bill pushed through Parliament by the opposition calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the claim.
Mr. Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, has also been at the center of some of his troubles. Late last year, spy cam footage emerged showing Ms. Kim accepting a $2,200 Dior pouch as a gift. The incident roiled his political party and became a significant issue ahead of parliamentary elections.
Ms. Kim had also faced allegations that she was involved in a stock price manipulation scheme before Mr. Yoon’s election. Last year, the opposition-controlled Parliament passed a bill that would have mandated a special prosecutor to investigate the claims. Mr. Yoon vetoed the bill.
Notably, relations with North Korea have sunk to longtime lows since Mr. Yoon took office. For decades, the two Koreas — which never signed a peace treaty after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce — have swung between conciliatory tones and saber rattling. North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has been unpredictable and bellicose, developing nuclear weapons and supplying Russia with munitions and troops for its war against Ukraine.
Mr. Yoon has adopted a confrontational approach and called for spreading the idea of freedom to the North to penetrate the information blackout there. He has also expanded joint military drills with the United States and Japan.
North Korea, under Mr. Kim, has veered toward a more hawkish stance, shutting off all dialogue with Seoul and Washington, doubling down on testing nuclear-capable missiles and vowing to treat South Korea not as a partner for reunification but as an enemy that the North must annex should war break out.
Early on Wednesday morning, the National Assembly voted to lift martial law in a swift rebuke of the president’s drastic response to the political deadlock that had hobbled his tenure. The South Korean act on martial law states that if the assembly demands an end to it, the president must lift it “without delay.”
It was not immediately clear how the president or military would respond to the vote.
“I was imagining the worst possible outcome, and I’m relieved it didn’t go to that extreme,” Kim Min-cheol, 26, said after rushing to the National Assembly shortly after the president’s speech. He added that he was shocked to see military helicopters land in the National Assembly’s compound earlier in the night. Protesters around him continued to call for the president’s impeachment.
Kurt Campbell, the deputy secretary of state, said that the United States was watching the developments in South Korea “with grave concern,” and that President Biden had been briefed on the situation.
“We’re seeking to engage our R.O.K. counterparts at every level,” Campbell said, using an acronym for the Republic of Korea. He added, “We have every hope and expectation that any political disputes will be resolved peacefully and in accordance with the rule of law.”
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SKIP ADVERTISEMENTBy 2:30 a.m., the protests have swelled and spilled out of the National Assembly’s immediate vicinity to the adjacent streets of Yeouido, the island in the center of Seoul where the compound sits. Thousands of people have filled a section of an eight-lane road to call for the president to be arrested.
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President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea declared martial law on Tuesday night, accusing the opposition of “trying to overthrow the free democracy.” But about five hours later, he said he would lift the declaration, bowing to pressure after the National Assembly unanimously passed a resolution demanding that it end.
“I will lift martial law as soon as we have a quorum in the cabinet. It’s early in the morning, so we don’t have a quorum yet,” Mr. Yoon said in an address. He called on the legislature to “immediately stop the outrageous behavior that is paralyzing the functioning of the country with impeachments, legislative manipulation and budget manipulation.”
It was the first martial law declaration in more than four decades in South Korea, which saw the end of a military dictatorship in the late 1980s. Mr. Yoon, who was elected president in 2022, has been in a near-constant political standoff with the opposition, which controls Parliament, and his government has faced plunging public approval ratings.
In his speech declaring martial law late Tuesday, Mr. Yoon said he was making the move to “defend the free Republic of Korea from the threats of North Korean communist forces and to eradicate the shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people and to protect the free constitutional order. Through this emergency martial law, I will rebuild and defend the free Republic of Korea, which is falling into ruin.”
What does the martial law declaration mean?
The country’s constitution states that the president may proclaim martial law when “required to cope with a military necessity or to maintain the public safety and order by mobilization of the military forces in time of war, armed conflict or similar national emergency.”
Army Gen. Park An-Su, who was appointed martial law commander by Mr. Yoon, banned “all political activities,” including political party activities and citizens’ rallies. “All news media and publications are under the control of martial law command,” General Park said.
His edict also banned labor activities and spreading “fake news.” Those who violate the decree can be arrested without a court warrant, it said. According to South Korean news agency Yonhap, the martial law command says all media and publishers are to be under its control, and orders all medical staff including trainee doctors, many of whom have been on strike, to return to work in 48 hours. Those who violate the martial law can be arrested without a warrant.
Who is Yoon Suk Yeol?
Mr. Yoon, a former prosecutor, won an extremely close presidential election in 2022, bringing the country’s conservatives back to power with calls for a more confrontational stance against North Korea and a stronger alliance with the United States. He replaced President Moon Jae-in, a progressive leader who served a single five-year term, and by law could not run again.
When he was sworn in to office in May of that year, Mr. Yoon vowed to stand for values including freedom and liberal democracy.
Soon after he was elected, however, Mr. Yoon began turning to lawsuits, state regulators and criminal investigations to clamp down on speech that he called disinformation, efforts that were largely aimed at news organizations. Police and prosecutors repeatedly raided the homes and newsrooms of journalists whom his office has accused of spreading “fake news.”
In April, Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party suffered a stinging defeat in parliamentary elections, giving the opposition a huge majority. He became the first South Korean president in decades to contend with an opposition-controlled Parliament for his entire time in office.
How did South Korea’s political parties react?
Han Dong-hoon, the leader of Mr. Yoon’s own People Power Party, said the declaration of martial law is “wrong” and that he will “block it,” South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.
Lee Jae-myung, the South Korean opposition leader, recorded a video in a car on his way to the National Assembly, asking citizens to congregate there. “There is no reason to declare martial law. We cannot let the military rule this country,” he said. “President Yoon Suk Yeol has betrayed the people. President Yoon’s illegal declaration of emergency martial law is null and void. From this moment on, Mr. Yoon is no longer the president of South Korea.”
Lee Jae-jung, a South Korean lawmaker who is a member of the Democratic Party, wrote on Facebook that she was making her way to the National Assembly. “We will stop this at all costs,” she said.
Broadcasts by state news media showed soldiers and police officers pushing against citizens trying to enter the National Assembly building as protesters shouted, “End martial law! End martial law!”
How could martial law be lifted?
Under South Korean law, martial law can be lifted with a majority vote in the parliament, where the opposition Democratic Party holds a majority. When “the National Assembly requests the lifting of martial law, the President shall, without delay, do so and announce it,” the law states.
Live footage from the National Assembly showed that some lawmakers seemed to be holding an emergency meeting held by Woo Won-shik, the speaker of the National Assembly.
Mr. Woo later said President Yoon’s declaration of martial law had become “null and void” after the assembly adopted a resolution demanding its lifting.
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SKIP ADVERTISEMENTChoe Sang-HunJin Yu YoungJohn Yoon and Tim Balk
Choe Sang-Hun, Jin Yu Young and John Yoon reported from Seoul.
A chaotic scene was playing out early Wednesday at South Korea’s legislative building in Seoul, where thousands of people gathered to protest President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law, and police and soldiers tried to prevent people from entering the building.
Soldiers wearing helmets and carrying long guns pushed back against people who tried to enter the National Assembly building. At one point, people in the crowd raised their hands skyward as soldiers pushed forward away from the building.
Police officers wearing neon-yellow jackets were encircled by crowds of protesters and journalists as helicopters thumped overhead in the night sky.
Windows were damaged, with cobweb-like cracks running up two large panels. It was not apparent what had cracked the glass.
Just behind the glass, soldiers stood guard. Outside, someone held up the South Korean flag.
The declaration of martial law said the president would take command of the news media, but as of 2 a.m. local time, news outlets were still able to broadcast and publish.
Many people outside the building filmed the scene on cellphones, and their camera flashes lit up the exterior walls. Some chanted and clapped.
The entrance was blocked as the speaker of the National Assembly called on lawmakers to convene in the main chamber to discuss how to respond to the martial-law declaration.
Some lawmakers managed to enter the building and gathered in the chamber for what appeared to be an emergency meeting held by the speaker, Woo Won-shik. Video showed dozens of people seated in a hall.
The lawmakers adopted a resolution demanding the lifting of martial law.
In another part of the building, a hallway was filled with what appeared to be smoke.
After the vote, some members of the military were seen leaving the building.
The clashes between protesters and the authorities did not appear to have spread beyond the National Assembly’s immediate compound.
Around 1 a.m. local time, pedestrians and vehicles were flowing through the streets of Yeouido, the island in the Han River in the heart of Seoul where the compound is.
But at the National Assembly, police officers lined the sidewalks as they faced thousands of protesters.
One of the demonstrators, Kim Hye Rim, a 23-year-old business student, said it was her first time protesting. She took a bus to the National Assembly, she said, after seeing the opposition leader deliver a plea for citizens to gather there.
Nearby, a crowd of protesters shouted: “Arrest Yoon Suk Yeol!”
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