S. Korea’s Lee says martial law perpetrators must face justice

SEOUL — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said on Wednesday there was still work to be done to address the fallout of the failed martial law bid by his predecessor a year ago, and the country needed to ensure the perpetrators were brought to justice.

Marking the first anniversary of the shock announcement of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024, Mr. Lee said former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s action had threatened an irreparable setback to the country, but the people rose up and stopped the military with their bare hands.

“The recklessness of those who tried to destroy constitutional order and even plan a war all for their personal ambitions must be brought to justice,” he said.

“The Dec. 3 coup d’etat was not just a crisis for democracy in one country. If democracy in South Korea collapsed, it would have meant a setback… for world democracy.”

Mr. Yoon’s martial law declaration plunged a country that had been viewed as a democratic success story into months of political turmoil, just as US President Donald J. Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on global trading partners rattled South Korea’s export-reliant economy.

The conservative leader was later ousted and Mr. Lee, who lost to Mr. Yoon in a 2022 presidential poll, won a snap election in June with a mandate to steer the country out of the shock of martial law, as those who were accused of being involved were arrested and tried for subversion.

Since coming to office, Mr. Lee has managed to strike a US tariff deal after two summits with Mr. Trump, but there remain deep fissures in society and concerns over whether the conservative side feels it is being persecuted.

Mr. Lee warned that reforming the country following the martial law crisis would be painful and time-consuming.

“But just as treating cancer by removing the cancer cells that have taken root deep inside the body, it cannot be completed that easily,” he said.

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Mr. Yoon has remained defiant, saying his short-lived martial law was necessary to alert the public to a “national crisis.” He says Mr. Lee’s opposition Democratic Party, which controlled parliament at the time, was threatening to collapse democracy.

“It was different from martial law in the past that persecuted the people,” Mr. Yoon said in written comments to Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper published on Wednesday, insisting he had complied with parliament’s demand to lift the decree.

The late-night declaration was overturned within hours by a majority parliamentary vote backed by Mr. Lee’s Democrats and some members of Mr. Yoon’s conservative party.

On trial for insurrection and facing life imprisonment or even potentially the death penalty, Mr. Yoon has denied ordering the arrest of opposition lawmakers and political enemies and argued the martial law declaration caused no harm.

Former cabinet members, military officers, and lawmakers are also among those on trial or under investigation. Mr. Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, faces a separate trial on corruption and bribery charges.

Some members of the conservative People Power Party formally apologized on Wednesday for not blocking the martial law decree, but divisions remain as hardliners continue to accuse Mr. Lee and his party of stoking conflict.

Mr. Lee said he will propose designating Dec. 3 a national holiday to celebrate the role of the people in quelling martial law and added that he believed they deserved to be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mr. Lee will join a citizens’ march on Wednesday to mark the martial law anniversary. The march will pass parliament, where soldiers and police were deployed on the night of Dec. 3, 2024 to try to shut down the chamber.

Lawmakers had to jump fences that night to enter and vote down the martial law declaration. — Reuters