SEOUL, Dec 4 (Reuters) - South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Wednesday he would move to lift a martial law declaration he had imposed just hours before, honoring a parliamentary vote against the measure. Yoon declared martial law on Tuesday to thwart “anti-state forces” among his opponents. But outraged lawmakers rejected the decree, as protesters gathered outside parliament in the country’s biggest political crisis in decades. Yoon’s surprise declaration, which he cast as aimed at his political foes, was unanimously voted down by 190 lawmakers in the parliament. Under South Korean law, the president must immediately lift martial law if parliament demands it by a majority vote. His own party urged him to lift the decree. The crisis in a country that has been a democracy since the 1980s, and is a U.S. ally and major Asian economy, caused international alarm.

  • Nougat@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    19 days ago

    … he would move to lift a martial law declaration …

    Dude can just go on TV and declare it, how come he can’t go on TV and undeclare it? What’s taking so long?

    • halyk.the.red@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      18 days ago

      Possibly there’s autonomous actions required when martial law is declared that take some time to undo? Like taking a tent out of the box, it takes way longer to get it back in, if it ever does.

      I’m only guessing, I honestly have no idea what it entails.

      • randon31415@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        18 days ago

        They explained that it took a majority of his cabinet to undeclared and they were all currently sleeping. (They had gone to bed before the declaration and had to be woken up to undo it.)