Proclamation No. 1 from the martial legislation command, issued on Dec. 3, 2024, after then-President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial legislation. (Hankyoreh graphic)
On Dec. 3, 2024, at 10:23 pm, then-President Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial legislation in an emergency deal with to the nation, launching South Korea right into a disaster the likes of which had not been seen for the reason that army coup d’etat of 1979.
In a speech lasting simply over 4 minutes, he insisted that martial legislation was an “unavoidable measure” to guard the Republic of Korea as a free nation. By 11:00 pm, the martial legislation command headquarters had issued its first edict.
Composed of 464 characters together with its title, this decree gives a glimpse into how the insurrectionist forces sought to destroy Korean society on Dec. 3. Had it not been for the Nationwide Meeting’s swift decision to elevate martial legislation, the resistance of decided residents, and the passive response of troopers who risked punishment for insubordination, we might have skilled the destruction of our constitutional order, the collapse of Korean democracy, and the grave infringement of basic rights. This can be a terrifying alternate actuality.
Dissolution of the Nationwide Meeting and fabrication of election fraud
Article 1 of the martial legislation decree acknowledged, “All political actions, together with the actions of the Nationwide Meeting, native councils, political events, and political affiliation, rallies and demonstrations, are prohibited.”
Whereas the enlargement of emergency martial legislation on Might 17, 1980, additionally broadly banned “political actions,” it didn’t particularly impose restrictions on the Nationwide Meeting, political events and native councils.
The prohibition of actions by the Nationwide Meeting and political events seems to be a results of the extraordinary standoff the Yoon administration skilled with the highest opposition occasion since Yoon’s inauguration in Might 2022. The previous president fiercely criticized the Democratic Social gathering, portray the Nationwide Meeting as “reckless” for pushing key reforms, impeaching authorities officers, and legislating particular prosecution payments. And as soon as martial legislation was declared, the Nationwide Meeting would maintain the only real authority to elevate it. This is the reason it was designated as an establishment that should be dismantled.
These aligned with the rebel plot didn’t merely try to intrude with the Nationwide Meeting vote. They even drafted plans to have over 10 politicians and key leaders arrested and detained, and tried to place these plans into motion.
Yeo In-hyeong, the pinnacle of the Protection Counterintelligence Command on the time, obtained an inventory of individuals to arrest from then-Protection Minister Kim Yong-hyun. He then moved to kind a joint arrest squad to nab “anti-state actors” comprising the Protection Counterintelligence Command (DCC), the police, and the Prison Investigation Command overseen by the Protection Ministry.
Carrying backpacks containing expandable batons, handcuffs, ropes, lashing belts, 49 investigators from the DCC, every main a workforce of 5, have been dispatched to the Nationwide Meeting to make the arrests.
When the Nationwide Meeting was on the verge of voting to rescind martial legislation, the plan modified to having folks like Speaker Woo Gained-shik, Lee Jae Myung and Han Dong-hoon arrested on sight.
Across the time they headed for the Nationwide Meeting, the Protection Ministry’s Prison Investigation Command scoped out websites the place the arrested folks could be detained within the better Seoul space, and even made preparations to have the topics transported to such websites. The corrections division of the Justice Ministry additionally confirmed that detention amenities inside the metro space had the capability to accommodate an extra 3,600 inmates.
“Go to the principle chamber and have every individual carried out by groups of 4.” As soon as Nationwide Meeting lawmakers assembled for the vote, that is reportedly the order that President Yoon Suk-yeol reportedly gave to Lee Jin-woo, the pinnacle of the Capital Protection Command on the time.
Other than the DCC’s arrest squad, 466 troops from the Military Particular Warfare Command and 212 troops from the Capital Protection Command have been dispatched to the Nationwide Meeting.
This was a enough drive to have 150 lawmakers, out of the 190 lawmakers who convened on the Nationwide Meeting’s important corridor, escorted out with 4 troops to every lawmaker.
Martial legislation troops have been additionally dispatched to the Nationwide Election Fee on the night time of the rebel. These behind the rebel plot wrongly believed that their political troubles stemmed from electoral fraud, and declared martial legislation to verify their suspicions.
A “second investigative unit,” spearheaded by Roh Sang-won, a former chief of the Protection Intelligence Command, was set to have over 30 Nationwide Election Fee employees restrained with cable ties and their faces coated in blindfolds earlier than shifting them to a Capital Protection Command bunker.
Aluminum baseball bats, blindfolds, ropes, and heavy-duty paper cutters had been ready to intimidate them.
“I’ll handle Rho Tae-ak,” Roh had instructed brokers earlier than martial legislation was declared, referring to the pinnacle of the Nationwide Election Fee.
It’s doubtless that after extracting testimony from the employees by way of torture and abuse, they’d have introduced that the Nationwide Election Fee had orchestrated a plan to rig the election.
President Yoon Suk-yeol declares emergency martial legislation throughout an emergency deal with from the presidential workplace in Seoul on the night of Dec. 3, 2024. (Shin So-young/Hankyoreh)
Age of censorship, a confiscated public sq.
Paragraphs 2 and three of the martial legislation decree prohibited “faux information, manipulation of public opinion, and propaganda” and positioned “all media retailers and publications beneath the management of the Martial Legislation Command.”
On the night time that martial legislation was declared, there was an order to have 100 martial legislation troops (72 Particular Warfare Command, 28 DCC) dispatched to Flower, a polling company run by liberal commentator Kim Ou-joon in Seoul’s Seodaemun District.
These behind the rebel plot appear to have recognized Kim’s polling company as a key establishment of “faux information, public opinion manipulation, and propaganda.” The plan was to have police raid the places of work of the Hankyoreh, the Kyunghyang Shinmun, MBC and JTBC — all recognized to be center-left in orientation — at midnight.
At round 11:37 pm on Dec. 3, then-Inside Minister Lee Sang-min referred to as former Nationwide Fireplace Company Commissioner Heo Seok-gon and instructed him, “At 24:00, police can be dispatched to 5 areas, together with the Hankyoreh. If the police request to have water and electrical energy minimize off to those areas, be sure that the Nationwide Fireplace Company takes the right measures.”
This was an order to have media organizations crucial of the administration silenced earlier than the police took over. After bodily occupying media retailers, the martial legislation forces would appoint censorship officers to regulate outgoing reviews. With a view to disguise its operations on the Nationwide Election Fee as one “confirming election fraud,” it could have been crucial to censor the media and publishing.
Paragraph 4 within the martial legislation decree states, “All strikes, work stoppages, and rallies that incite social dysfunction are prohibited.” Among the many folks that Yeo instructed Hong Jang-won, the primary deputy director of the Nationwide Intelligence Service, to have arrested was Yang Kyeung-soo, the president of the Korean Confederation of Commerce Unions.
These behind the rebel plot doubtless would have labeled the umbrella union an anti-state drive and prohibited their rallies. The general public sq. that stirred with democratic fervor throughout political crises would have clearly change into a playground for the likes of Rev. Jun Kwang-hoon and firebrand Jeon Han-gil.
Did Yoon Suk-yeol dream of an prolonged time period?
As soon as the rebel failed, Yoon argued that martial legislation was a “warning” and an “enchantment to the general public.” Those that conspired with him additionally kept away from talking of what that they had envisioned had the martial legislation bid succeeded.
Nevertheless, the few shreds of proof that have been gathered in the course of the ensuing investigation enable us to guess at what would have occurred. Written orders that Yoon gave to Choi Sang-mok, the finance minister on the time, on the day of martial legislation instructed him to “draft a funds for an emergency state legislature.”
This can be a comparable organ to the Legislative Council for Nationwide Safety created by the brand new army regime of Chun Doo-hwan after it dissolved the Nationwide Meeting following the enlargement of martial legislation on Might 17, 2025.
Seventy pages of notes allegedly written by Roh Sang-won, the unofficial mastermind behind the rebel, in October 2023, paint an image of what might have come to go if martial legislation had not been lifted.
Roh’s pocket book comprises sentences like “put together for the following presidential election; demolish all leftist factions.”
As measures for “legislative and political reform” after the actual fact, the pocket book outlines plans to observe public opinion for round a 12 months; amend the Structure (enabling re-election as much as three phrases in workplace); revise nationwide safety legal guidelines; and enhance nationwide electoral methods. The plans to revise the Structure to permit for a number of presidential phrases point out that Yoon dreamed of staying in workplace for a prolonged interval.
Those that helped orchestrate and execute the rebel recognized the leftists who opposed them as “anti-state forces.” Roh’s pocket book identifies them as “events to be collected” and drafted the related measures for dispatching them.
The pocket book additionally comprises a plan to have folks killed by firing squad at DMZ common outposts; to have proof moved to uninhabited components of islands like Yeonpyeong and blown up; and to have them positioned on boats headed for North Korea that will then be sunk proper earlier than being apprehended by North Korea. Concerning the Yeonpyeong Island components, there are phrases involving the utilization of “massive non-public vessels” and “explode them at an applicable time throughout motion after passengers disembark on Silmi Island.”
Concerning the plans for disposal at border-adjacent common outposts, Roh wrote of “destroying detention amenities by burning them” and “after infiltrating the premises, terminate all inhabitants (grenades and so on).”
The plans have been for transporting individuals who violate the martial legislation decree and other people focused for arrest to detention websites the place they’d be disposed of at sea by way of numerous means.
The listing of individuals to arrest on the night time of Dec. 3 included Lee Jae Myung; Nationwide Meeting Speaker Woo Gained-shik; former Folks Energy Social gathering chief Han Dong-hoon; KCTU President Yang Kyeung-soo; present Prime Minister Kim Min-seok; Rebuilding Korea Social gathering chief Cho Kuk; Deputy Speaker Lee Hack-young; Democratic Social gathering lawmaker Park Chan-dae; Yang Jung-chul, former president of the Institute for Democracy; Kim Ou-joon; former Supreme Court docket Chief Justice Kim Myeong-soo; former Supreme Court docket Justice Kwon Quickly-il; standing Nationwide Election Fee commissioner Cho Hai-ju; and Kim Min-woong, the president of Candle Transfer, which led anti-Yoon protests all through and after his time period.
Roh’s pocket book named not simply politicians within the Democratic Social gathering but in addition creator Rhyu Si-min, TV character Kim Je-dong, and former soccer participant Cha Bum-kun.
Had the rebel been profitable, martial legislation would have continued, and other people would have intensified their opposition, growing the quantity of people that defied the martial legislation decree. In that case, harmless folks locked up in detention amenities would have been disposed of in methods outlined in Roh’s pocket book.
By Kang Jae-gu, workers reporter
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