SEOUL, South Korea — A year after his predecessor’s effort to impose martial law failed amid public outcry, South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung praised ordinary citizens on Wednesday for helping thwart the power grab and for reaffirming the resilience of the country’s democracy.
A year ago, thousands gathered around the country’s National Assembly, after then-President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, accusing the opposition of “legislative dictatorship.”
Yoon sent troops to the National Assembly and issued decrees banning political activities. But the parliament successfully voted down the martial law declaration, forcing Yoon to lift it after only six hours. Ordinary citizens rushed to defend the parliament against martial law troops.
Lee told a press conference on Wednesday that South Koreans had “astonished the world” by restoring democratic government“ from a self-coup — a situation where an elected or incumbent executive sweeps away legislatures, constitutions, elections or other means of holding them accountable.
Here are some takeaways from the year since the event unfolded.
Yoon and many subordinates face prosecution
Within days, law enforcement started investigating Yoon on charges of insurrection. In January, Yoon became the first sitting president in the country’s history to be arrested.
The National Assembly impeached him on Dec. 14, 2024, with at least a dozen lawmakers from Yoon’s own party joining the opposition to unseat him. The Constitutional Court confirmed his impeachment in April in a unanimous decision.
The former president has since been indicted for masterminding an insurrection, abusing power and attempting treason.
In November, a special counsel team alleged that Yoon sent drones into Pyongyang in October 2024 to provoke North Korea’s retaliation and justify his martial law declaration.
More than a dozen military commanders, Yoon’s defense minister and interior minister, as well as his prime minister Han Duck-soo, have also been indicted for varying degrees of involvement in the alleged insurrection.
Han’s trial is progressing the fastest, with the verdict scheduled for Jan. 21, 2026.
Yoon has defended his declaration of martial law as a legitimate tool of governance, and he and his subordinates have all maintained their innocence.
Structural reforms to prevent a recurrence
In July, the National Assembly revised the law with stricter requirements for declaring martial law and stronger protections of the parliament. Military and police will no longer be allowed in the parliamentary compound without the speaker’s consent, even when martial law is in effect.
Separate bills have been proposed to stipulate that public servants, including military personnel, can disobey their superiors’ unlawful orders.
Ahn Gyu-back, the first civilian defense minister in 64 years, reshuffled a majority of the military’s top ranks and ordered an internal audit on units involved in or mobilized for martial law.
Lee’s administration has also launched a governmentwide probe for officials who cooperated in executing martial law. In September, Lee proposed amending South Korea’s constitution to change presidential terms from the current single five-year term to two four-year terms. This reform would introduce midterm elections to make presidents more accountable.
The crisis is causing shifts in South Korea’s political landscape
Apoll last month found that public confidence in national institutions, including the government and elections, was staging a comeback.
But the martial law debacle appears to have made South Korea’s deep political divisions even deeper. Apoll last week found that 77% of respondents feel polarization has gotten worse since martial law.
Former President Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP), now in opposition, wastorn over whether to apologize for Yoon’s self-coup, as military and police chiefs have done.
With local elections next year, the PPP faces a choice of whether to appeal to centrist voters with an apology, or to continue to back Yoon to please their conservative base. On Wednesday, fewer than a quarter of PPP lawmakersapologized at a press conference.
President Lee, meanwhile, faces a stiff challenge in balancing accountability for the political crisis with reconciliation and national unity.
”The intention is not to mercilessly punish the perpetrators,“ Lee said of the ongoing investigations and trials during the press conference. ”But we can’t sweep them under the rug and let things slide. We need to unite, but unity doesn’t mean stitching things up.“
Global repercussions, including for Seoul’s main ally
The crisis dealt a heavy blow to South Korea’s global image as a country that had peacefully triumphed over a military dictatorship in the 1980s and built a mature and stable democracy.
It was also an embarrassment for the Biden administration, which hadinvested heavily in President Yoon as the leader of an allied ”model democracy“ and host of the inaugural ”Summit for Democracy,“ a Biden initiative to counter global authoritarianism. Allegations that Yoon staged provocations against North Korea have rattled the US-South Korea alliance, as the conflict could have endangered U.S. troops defending the South.
President Lee Jae Myung told the press conference that he hopes South Korea’s experience will become ”a historic example for the restoration of democracy“ for the rest of the world.
That may depend partly on South Korea’s success in preventing further political chaos and democratic backsliding.
Copyright 2025 NPR
