South Korea’s president declares MARTIAL LAW over fears lawmakers sympathetic to Kim Jong Un are subverting parliament – and vows to ‘eradicate pro-North Korean forces’

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol has declared emergency martial law, saying the measure was necessary to protect the country from ‘communist forces’ in North Korea and ‘anti-state’ actors in his own nation.

‘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 in a televised address today.

He went on to accuse his country’s opposition of controlling the parliament and paralysing the government through anti-state activities, without specifying what they were.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the steps would affect the country’s governance and democracy, but Yoon vowed to ‘rebuild a democratic country’ under martial law.

The move comes as a complete shock in the Western-aligned Asian nation of more than 50 million which despite escalating tensions with its foe to the North is not fighting an active war, has not been invaded by Kim Jong Un’s troops and has not suffered attacks on its soil. 

Since taking office in 2022, Yoon had struggled to push his agendas against an opposition-controlled parliament, raising suspicions the sudden implementation of martial law could be a political ploy to exercise greater power. 

The move comes one day after the opposition Democratic Party – which has a majority in parliament – put forward a motion to impeach some of South Korea’s top prosecutors and also rejected a government budget proposal.