[Editorial] 1 12 months after martial regulation disaster, Korea should vow ‘by no means once more’

Previously, frenzied dictators waged “soiled wars” towards their very own public.

Troopers arrested, imprisoned and tortured anybody who would possibly pose even a slight menace to the regime, all with no warrant. They even tortured dad and mom in entrance of their very own kids. Individuals had been executed with out trials and buried in stadiums; when there was no place left to bury them, their our bodies had been tossed into the ocean.

The massacres perpetrated by dictatorial regimes in South America in the course of the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties got here to be referred to as “soiled wars.” This type of brutal suppression of democracy and human rights by dictators came about not solely in South America but additionally in Africa and Asia. South Korea, for its half, skilled the tragic bloodbath in Gwangju in 1980.

However democracy would develop from there, and that bloody historical past got here to be thought to be merely a part of the previous. One night time, that agency perception crumbled underneath surreal circumstances.

At 10:23 pm on Dec. 3, 2024, then-South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol issued an emergency martial regulation declaration that immediately turned the lives of fifty million individuals the other way up.

Yoon insisted that this was an “unavoidable measure to protect a free Republic of Korea.” In actuality, it was merely the primary armed coup try to happen in a developed democratic state.

In a while, the notebooks of former Protection Intelligence Command chief Roh Sang-won would verify among the horrific intentions lurking behind Yoon’s eyes when he declared martial regulation. They described a hellish scene of main politicians, media figures, judges, social activists and broadcasting personalities being indiscriminately rounded up and loaded on a ship to be scuttled or blown up.

Over time, the revelations have solely turn out to be extra astonishing. Yoon and his cronies tried to encourage a army assault by North Korea by sending drones into Pyongyang — in search of a struggle that might function a pretext for declaring martial regulation.

A memo drafted by Protection Counterintelligence Command commander Yeo In-hyeong simply earlier than the declaration referred to a hypothetical state of affairs of full-scale struggle. It learn, “Minimal: Safety disaster, Most: Noah’s flood” — in different phrases, scorched earth. 

Members in a mass rally on Dec. 14, 2024, exterior the Nationwide Meeting wave their gentle sticks in to the beat of music as they have fun the impeachment of Yoon Suk-yeol, the previous president. (Kim Younger-won/Hankyoreh)

Because the democratic republic and the general public’s lives had been threatened with extinction, it was the sovereign individuals themselves who rescued them.

Residents raced to the Nationwide Meeting from different components of Seoul and all around the nation to bodily block the armored vehicles and armed troopers. They helped lawmakers break via the police cordon and climb over the Nationwide Meeting’s partitions in order that they may vote to raise the martial regulation declaration.

Because the bitter winter chilly raged, individuals of all ages and walks of life stuffed the streets with assist wands, which led to a Nationwide Meeting vote impeaching Yoon on Dec. 14.

When Yoon was lastly arrested at his official residence on the next Jan. 15, this was supported by farmers who led a tractor protest march to Seoul; round 30,000 members of the general public who gathered in the course of the night time to assist these blocked at Namtaeryeong go; and members of the so-called “Kisses group” who wrapped themselves in foil blankets to carry out in entrance of the president’s residence amid heavy snows. The winter appeared like a miracle.

When spring got here once more, it ushered in an enormous backlash.

In distinction with the sovereign individuals who weathered the winter via their very own assets, members of the ability elite not solely did not battle again towards the rebel however actively supported or defended it. As a substitute of taking motion towards a nationwide disaster, they sought to revenue from the chaos.

Appearing presidents tried to thwart the restoration of constitutional authorities by refusing to nominate justices to the Constitutional Court docket. The Individuals Energy Occasion (PPP), which had tried to disrupt the votes to raise martial regulation and to question Yoon, started talking out extra loudly towards the impeachment.

However it was Yoon’s preliminary launch on March 8 — when his courtroom determined to overturn his detention and the prosecutors deserted their enchantment — that delivered one other infuriating shock to the general public on par with a second martial regulation declaration.

This type of factor is likely to be anticipated from the prosecutors, who shared their roots with Yoon’s insurrectionists. However nobody imagined that the courts would possibly function the ringleader’s guard.

Even when the Constitutional Court docket eliminated Yoon from workplace on April 8, the victory for democracy was not full. When Supreme Court docket Chief Justice Jo Hee-de reversed and remanded a ruling towards Lee Jae Myung on election regulation violations, this was one other try to undermine the ideas of fashionable sovereignty. In the meantime, former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and the PPP sought to take benefit and hold the insurrectionists in energy by forcibly switching out the occasion’s presidential candidate.

Supreme Court docket Chief Justice Jo Hee-de seems earlier than the Nationwide Meeting’s Legislative and Judiciary Committee throughout a parliamentary audit on Oct. 13, 2025. (Kim Younger-won/Hankyoreh)

The rebel try on Dec. 3 of final 12 months laid naked how a lot contempt these people felt for democracy and the way deeply they sought to rule over the sovereign public — not simply the deluded leaders of the rebel themselves, but additionally the ability elite that loved vested pursuits throughout society.

The truth that there was nobody in 2024 who responded as then-Capital Garrison Command commander Jang Tae-wan did when he opposed the insurrectionists on Dec. 12, 1979; the truth that not a single Cupboard minister adamantly opposed the martial regulation declaration; the truth that the members of the PPP proceed appearing as trustworthy henchmen to the insurrectionists; the truth that the police, the prosecutors, and even the judiciary have did not ship a decisive authorized blow towards the destruction to the constitutional order — all of those level to the fact of a corrupt system of vested pursuits backing up the rebel try.

What has allowed us to achieve our present level has been our neighborhood’s tenacious efforts to beat these moments of despair.

The general public overcame the constitutional instability to put a brand new administration in workplace, displaying astonishing resilience within the face of a disaster that almost evaporated a long time’ price of political, financial and cultural belongings straight away. This means of overcoming the rebel try was intently watched by the remainder of the world, the place many expressed amazement on the resilience of South Korean democracy.

Nonetheless, it’s too early to declare a victory for the Structure and democracy. A 12 months’s price of seasons have cycled, bringing us again to the day all of it transpired — however the means of bringing these accountable for the rebel to justice has been gradual.

So far, there has not been a single conviction for any of the insurrectionists. The general public has been infuriated by Decide Jee Kui-youn’s lackadaisical strategy to the rebel trial and the repeated dismissals of warrant requests by judges with the Seoul Central District Court docket. We have now even seen the insurrectionists’ exultant attorneys overtly insulting the courtroom within the rebel trials.

Since its launch final summer time, the particular counsel probing the rebel incident has made strides by having Yoon positioned again underneath arrest and indicting him on further treason expenses. However the particulars behind his try to impress a struggle haven’t been disclosed in a satisfying approach. Among the key questions stay unanswered in issues such because the direct motive behind Yoon’s rebel try and the position performed by first girl Kim Keon-hee.

Punishment for the rebel shouldn’t be one thing that ought to be approached at a token degree. To take action can be to plant seeds for future insurrections.

Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo had been sentenced to life imprisonment and 17 years in jail on expenses of army rebel and rebel, solely to be launched on particular pardons in December 1997, the identical 12 months that their preliminary sentences had been finalized. The purported purpose of “nationwide unity” was not achieved; the one impact was to undermine the sanctity of our legal guidelines towards treason.

Jang Dong-hyuk, the chief of the Individuals Energy Occasion, speaks at a rally denouncing the try to arrest Rep. Choo Kyung-ho exterior the Seoul Central District Court docket on Dec. 2, 2025. (Yonhap)

The specter of a coup appeared set to go into historical past endlessly, solely to be resurrected after half a century. We can’t afford to permit any extra of this harmful leniency.

As we observe the remaining particular counsel investigations, we should ensure that the utmost crucial measures are taken to completely probe any lingering questions that stay. The trials should not be shrouded in public mistrust the best way they’re right this moment.

We have to study each avenue that the Structure permits, together with the potential of a devoted courtroom for the rebel case. The duty pressure on “authorities innovation for constitutional integrity” should carry out its appointed duties of investigating rebel accomplices who’re lurking in official society.
 
The one approach for us to actually rid ourselves of the corrosive legacy of the rebel is to convey these accountable to justice with out exception and to overtake the social and political constructions that allowed such a disaster to ensue within the first place. 

After which there may be after all the urgent matter of rectifying the PPP, which continues to reward the rebel and name for Yoon to be returned to the presidency. On Monday, mere days earlier than the anniversary of Yoon’s botched coup, PPP chief Jang Dong-hyuk mentioned there was “nothing that the occasion can lower off,” refusing to chop ties with these accountable for final 12 months’s disaster. 

The general public wants to point out the PPP that with out painstaking reflection and a whole overhaul it can by no means have a big position within the legislature, to say nothing of profitable the presidency. 

Furthermore, we should break up the authority of the army, police, prosecutors, judiciary and all different insular establishments of energy which have remained, even after Korea’s democratization, disconnected from the general public, and strengthen democratic checks on their energy in order to return them to their meant place of serving the sovereign individuals of their nation. There isn’t a time to lose in pursuing these reforms. 

We should additionally enshrine in our establishments the calls for to oppose hate and discrimination in all its types that echoed via the streets this previous 12 months. 

Whereas the previous 12 months has been a time of triumph for the individuals of Korea, it was additionally a affirmation of the various shortcomings of our democracy. Can we actually relaxation assured that there’ll by no means be one other disaster like that on Dec. 3, 2024? 

Going ahead, we should focus our efforts on answering this query. The title of the Nationwide Fee on the Disappearance of Individuals’ report on the atrocities of the soiled wars was “Nunca Más” — “by no means once more.” The phrase is an expression of their willpower to by no means repeat such horrors. 

It’s an apt title for all the phobia and rage, the desperation and jubilation that we’ve got skilled this previous 12 months. By no means once more should we repeat the occasions of Dec. 3, 2024. With this resolve, we embark on a brand new 12 months. 

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