President Lee Jae Myung provides a particular deal with to the nation on the one-year anniversary of the martial legislation disaster of Dec. 3, 2024, from the presidential workplace in Yongsan, Seoul. (pool photograph)
On Wednesday, the primary anniversary of the rebellion try on Dec. 3, 2024, Korean President Lee Jae Myung declared that these concerned within the self-coup should “face judgment” and “stern punishment,” which he mentioned was essential as a way to obtain a “simply unity” within the nation.
“An accounting of the tried rebellion and investigations and trials of these concerned are nonetheless ongoing,” Lee mentioned, including that the “revolution of sunshine” shouldn’t be over.
Lee made the remarks in a public assertion on Wednesday morning, marking the primary anniversary of the “revolution of sunshine,” a time period derived from the sunshine stick-waving protestors who rallied within the streets to withstand final 12 months’s short-lived declaration of martial legislation.
“Simply because the previous has saved the current and the lifeless have aided the dwelling, guaranteeing that the ‘revolution of sunshine’ can rescue the long run and profit our descendants is the duty that my administration faces, the sober demand of our period. And that begins with meting out stern punishment to those that have been concerned within the self-coup,” Lee mentioned within the assertion.
“That heinous plot to destroy our constitutional order and even launch a battle, and all to fulfill personal ambition, should face judgment,” the Korean president added.
Such measures, Lee defined, have been a part of attaining “simply unity” within the nation.
“Simply unity is important if we’re to forge a rustic through which no one would ever once more dream of launching a coup, a rustic through which no one may threaten the luxurious mild of our in style sovereignty,” he declared.
“I’m assured that the Korean individuals themselves totally need to obtain the Nobel Peace Prize for overcoming, via peaceable means, a democratic disaster with no precedent in world historical past,” Lee mentioned in his public assertion.
“It was via peaceable means — via the procedures prescribed by our legal guidelines and our Structure — that the unlawful martial legislation declaration was quashed and an unjust authorities faraway from energy. It was a momentous event that shall be lengthy remembered within the historical past of world democracy,” he mentioned.
“The self-coup final December was not merely a disaster of democracy in a single nation. As many within the worldwide press have noticed, the collapse of democracy in Korea would have set off a democratic retreat not solely in Asia, however all through the world,” Lee mentioned.
“Legal guidelines and establishments, regardless of how nice, are merely castles of sand with out the assist of a individuals with the ability to maintain them. [The Korean people] have demonstrated the sheer energy that’s unlocked when democratic establishments and peaceable means are wielded by a individuals able to exercising their sovereignty,” the president went on.
Lee declared that Dec. 3 can be generally known as the “day of in style sovereignty,” pledging that the day would function an event for “remembering how our constitutional order and democracy have been saved and for vowing our steadfast dedication to democracy for so long as the Republic of Korea shall final.”
By Um Ji-won, workers reporter; Goh Gyoung-ju, workers reporter
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