https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-...esident-yoon-declares-martial-law-2024-12-03/ South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television.Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis."I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free constitutional order," Yoon said. He did not say in the address what specific measures will be taken.Yoon cited a motion by the country's opposition Democratic Party, which has a majority in parliament, this week to impeach some of the country's top prosecutors and its rejection of a government budget proposal.
Korea has had a few really corrupt leaders ..it's never been a peacefully run country. They do tend to hold corrupt presidents accountable there though. I've passed through there several times and it just seemed like a really unhappy country for an Asian country. I'm a poor judge of the place as I've never lived there but I was always relieved to get to Japan or Taiwan after a Korean layover flight. I'm sure it's not like that out in the villages, but Seoul is all I've experienced. Never sensed any aloha there at all.
I spent a week in Seoul visiting a childhood friend and his wife. I didn't find the people particularly cold, maybe not quite as warm as they were in Europe, but then again I look European, but they were cordial and sometimes even outright friendly to me. My friends are teachers and took me to their class one day. The 1o-year-olds were learning English and were really curious about the American visitor and thrilled to try to teach him Korean with Magic the Gathering cards or something like that. The one thing I found particularly interesting was that EVERYTHING is monitored. There are cameras everywhere, and if you find a lost phone, for instance, and don't turn it into the police, you can often be charged with theft. The other thing was just how cosmopolitan Seoul is, particularly Gangnam. One street has a Vietnamese restaurant, a Tibetan restaurant, an Irish pub, a Chinese restaurant and a Japanese restaurant. Not far away there was a huge German restaurant, and there are a lot of Lottes, basically Japanese McDonald's. Having experienced that, it's just hard for me to believe this is happening there. But fascism seems to be on the rise everywhere. The pandemic and its aftermath seems to have opened the door to make people give away their freedoms out of fear of losing their money or their freedom.
I'm glad to hear a good story about the place, unfortunately I don't have one but I was held at the airport once and had all my belongings gone through by 7 guys in blue suits. They even took my guitar out and looked through it thoroughly for drugs or whatever. They then made me stay in a smoke choked cubicle for several hours until my connecting flight when all I wanted to do was find a good restaurant and have a couple of beers. that was my last trip to Korea...I've since stopped booking flights with stopovers there..
I got stuck at a hotel in Inchon after they messed up my accommodations at the airport the night before my flight. I'm sorry you didn't have a better time there. I really found it enjoyable and educational, and I loved the food. Again, it might have helped in my case that I was staying with a South Korean national and her husband, my friend, I believe had become a citizen. If I was alone it might have been very different.
They have a sculpture in the middle of Gangnam dedicated to this song. I have several photos mugging with it.
My wife is hooked on Korean films and series. She watches them more than anything in the evening. She also loves KPop music and watches a lot of that.
I can only imagine how pissed off S Korean leadership must be with Trump's 25% import tax bluster. They are one of our biggest trade partners. Taiwan as well will not be happy with the import tax increase and they are the semi conductor leader of the world..without their tech, our own industries will suffer. Dumbest thing we could do is kill international trade with isolationist policies.
Parliament broke in and citizens barricaded the building from special forces until they could vote 190-0 against Yoon. Special forces then went home.
My friend from SK said the president thought he’d have more support when he did it and kind of walked off his own cliff Wiley Coyote style. “South Korea has a history of corrupt presidents, so they have made the office weaker.”
