South Korea’s decades-old democracy was put to the test on Tuesday when President Yoon Suk Yeol declared “emergency martial law,” suspending all political activity, ordering the country’s independent media to adhere to military control, and banning strikes and labor protests.
Mr. Yoon tried to justify his stunning decision by claiming it was to protect the country from “North Korea’s communist forces” and the opposition-controlled national assembly, which he said had “become a monster that collapses the liberal democracy system.”
But the real threat to South Korea’s democracy was Mr. Yoon’s brazen and likely unconstitutional attempt to subvert it.
Fortunately, South Korea weathered the test, and its democracy emerged not only intact but also strengthened.
At a time when democracy appears to be in retreat globally — and many Americans worry about its future in the United States — these events should reinvigorate faith that democratic institutions are resilient and people’s desire for freedom is universal.
South Korean politicians from across the spectrum — including from the president’s own party — declared Mr. Yoon’s televised declaration wrong, and within hours, a quorum of lawmakers managed to forcibly enter the national assembly and vote to overturn it.
Crowds also gathered in the early morning hours, defying the ban on political protests and demanding an end to the martial law decree.
Under the South Korean constitution, the president was obliged to follow the will of the assembly. Mr. Yoon was forced to back down, announcing he was lifting his martial law decree. He must now also accept the consequences of his power play — which might include his own impeachment.
The military appeared to yield to the elected representatives and the brave protesters on the streets, refusing to enforce Mr. Yoon’s martial law edict.
Leaders might often have valid gripes about legislatures overreaching when holding executives to account. That’s the nature of democracy. The answer is not to usurp the constitutional order by overturning democracy with a new military dictatorship, but to try to win the next election.
Make no mistake: Despite the dire words in Mr. Yoon’s warning about “shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces,” South Korea was facing no existential crisis. North Korea remains a continuous threat under erratic leader Kim Jong Un, who recently test-fired his military’s longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile to date, and has sent troops to help Russia in its war against Ukraine, giving them experience in modern combat.
But there were no recent indications of any unusual troop movements or mobilizations that would have justified Mr. Yoon’s warning of any imminent threat from North Korea.
Rather, the only threat was to Mr. Yoon’s presidency, and it was coming from his political opponents. In April legislative elections, Mr. Yoon and his People Power Party suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the liberal opposition, led by the Democratic Party and smaller parties that took 192 of 300 seats in the National Assembly.
Mr. Yoon and the opposition-led assembly clashed bitterly over next year’s budget, and the opposition had launched corruption inquiries against several of his officials.
Mr. Yoon has suffered from record unpopularity, with approval ratings only in the low- to mid-20s.
