South Korea's president declares a state of emergency

2024-12-03 17:46:39, Kosova & Bota CNA

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a state of emergency in the country on Tuesday in a surprise televised address to the nation late at night, targeting domestic political opponents and shocking the country.

President Yoon said the opposition parties had hijacked the parliamentary process. He vowed to root out "shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces" and said he had no choice but to take the measure to protect the constitutional order.

Yonhap news agency quoted the military as saying that the activities of parliament and political parties would be banned and that the media and their publishers would be under the control of the martial law command.

Mr. Yoon did not mention any specific threats from nuclear-armed North Korea, focusing instead on his domestic political opponents.

It is the first time since 1980 that martial law has been declared in South Korea.

Mr. Yoon's predecessor, Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party, said in a post on the X network that the country's democracy is in crisis.

"I hope that the National Assembly will act quickly to protect our democracy from collapse ," he wrote in a post.

"I ask the people to join forces to protect and save democracy and to help the National Assembly to function normally" .

The United States is in contact with the South Korean government and is monitoring the situation closely, a White House spokesman said.

About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea to defend against Pyongyang. A spokesman for the US military command did not respond to requests for comment./ VOA