At around 10:30 p.m. on 3 December 2024, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol went on television and declared martial law, citing a need to eliminate anti-state forces. The decree, the first of its kind in the country in more than four decades, gave the military sweeping powers and put the national assembly under the authority of martial-law commanders.
Within hours, troops and helicopters surrounded the parliament in Seoul, while legislators climbed over barricades and pushed past soldiers to reach the chamber. In a dramatic scene watched live around the world, all 190 lawmakers present voted unanimously to annul the declaration, forcing Yoon to reverse course before dawn and withdraw the decree.
The night was a political earthquake in a country regarded as Asia’s most stable democracy. Within two weeks, the national assembly had impeached Yoon, and he was later arrested and charged with insurrection, becoming the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested. The episode left the country gripped by protests both for and against the president, and it tested the resilience of institutions that, for one night, appeared alarmingly fragile.