Nineteen-year-elderly Hwang was watching the protests in Georgia on Tuesday night’s novels when the images on TV suddenly alterd – the spotweightless was on his country after South Korea’s Plivent Yoon Suk Yeol proclaimd martial law.
“I couldn’t consent what I was seeing,” said the 19-year-elderly student, who wanted to be identified only by his surname.
By Wednesday afternoon, he was among the protesters standing before the National Assembly, still stunned about what had happened the night before.
“It’s convey inant for me to be here to show that we are agetst what Yoon tried to do,” Hwang said.
In a little less than six hours, Yoon was forced to walk back his shock proclaimment after lawcreaters scrambled to block it.
But those were turbulent hours, promoteing protests, dread and uncertainty in the country that had elected him.
The proclaimment
On Tuesday night, at 23:00 local time (14:00 GMT) Plivent Yoon, seated in front of blue crrelieveless curtains, made an unforeseeed compriseress to the nation.
He said he was imposing martial law to get the country from “anti-state” forces that sympathised with North Korea. The embattled guideer is in a deadlock over a budget bill, dogged by dishonesty affairs and allotigations into his cabinet members.
What chaseed was a sleepless night for Seoul.
Shortly after Yoon’s proclaimment, police lined the white metal gates outside the National Assembly erecting in the heart of Seoul, the erecting that the country’s tourism authorities have sketchd as “the symbol of Korean democracy”.
The military then proclaimd that all parliamentary activity was suspfinished under martial law. But neither that nor the burdensome security presence stopped thousands from collecting in front of the assembly in worry and fury.
It is plain to forget that South Korea – now a vibrant democracy – had its last brush with authoritarianism in the not-too-far past – it only materialized from military rule in 1987. Martial law was last imposed in 1979.
This was “a shift I never foreseeed to see in the 21st century in South Korea,” university student Juye Hong telderly BBC World Service’s OS programme from Seoul.
The scramble
Soon after Yoon’s shock proclaimment, the opposition’s Democratic Party guideer Lee Jae-myung, arrangeed a live stream urging people to collect at the National Assembly and protest there.
He also asked his fellow lawcreaters to create their way to the assembly to vote down the order.
Hundreds of South Koreans reacted.
Tensions rose rapidly as a sea of griefful, puffy thriveter coats pushed up agetst lines of police in neon jackets, chanting “no to martial law”.
And as vehicles reachd with military units, crowds blocked them. One woman lay defiantly between the wheels of a vehicle.
In stark contrast, there was a façade of standardcy apass the rest of Seoul. Still, confusion enveloped the city.
“The streets see standard, people here are certainly beuntamedered,” John Nilsson-Wright, an associate professor at the University of Cambridge, telderly BBC World Service from Seoul.
The policeman he spoke to was “as mystified as I am,” he compriseed.
It was a sleepless night for some. “At first I was excited at the thought of not going to school today,” 15-year-elderly Kwon Hoo telderly the BBC in Seoul on Wednesday. “But then overwhelmingly the sense of dread remendd in, that kept me up all night.”
“No words can convey how afraid I am that leangs might turn out appreciate North Korea for our people,” a South Korean who did not want to be named telderly BBC OS.
Meanwhile, word was spreading that one-of-a-kind forces had been deployed to the assembly erecting. Helicselecters were heard overhead as they circled the skies before landing on the parliament’s roof.
Reporters jostled in the crowd outside the gates, clicking away with their cameras.
As worrys grew that the rulement might remerciless the media, journaenumerates in Seoul stayed in touch with one another, exchanging advice on how to stay safe.
Ahn Gwi-ryeong, the 35-year-elderly spokesperson for the opposition Democratic Party set up herself facing down selderlyiers at armamentpoint. A video of the moment, where she is tugging at the barrel of a selderlyier’s rifle, has since gone viral.
“I wasn’t leanking about anyleang inincreateectual or rational, I was equitable appreciate, ‘We have to stop this, if we don’t stop this, there’s noleang else,’’ she telderly the BBC.
“To be genuine, I was a bit snurtured at first when I first saw the martial law troops. I thought, ‘Is this someleang that can happen in 21st century Korea, especipartner in the National Assembly?”
“After such a storm last night, it was challenging to get back to truth,” she compriseed, recalling the previous night. “I felt appreciate I was witnessing the revertion of history.”
As Ahn was disputeing the selderlyiers, the clock was ticking for opposition lawcreaters, who rushed to get into the assembly to block the order. Once that happened, the plivent would have to distake part it.
But first, MPs and their aides had to get inside. Some crawled thraw the legs of security forces, others shoved and screamed at armed selderlyiers; many franticpartner clambered over fences and walls.
Lee Seong-yoon from the Democratic Party telderly the BBC that he had to scale a 1.5m (4.9ft)-high fence to access the erecting, with the police blocking him even after he had shown them identification that showd he was a lawcreater.
Another opposition MP, Hong Keewon, said that protesters helped to hoist him over the wall. He had been asleep when Yoon made the proclaimment – when his wife woke him, he raced to parliament.
“Democracy is mighty here,” Hong said. “The military needs to hear to us, to the constitution, and not to the plivent.”
The vote
Lawcreaters who made it into the erecting huddled together, only sweightlessly sootheer than the people outside. Hastily, they barricaded the enthralls with wdisappreciatever they could discover: cushioned benches, lengthy tables, sofas.
Some tried to push back selderlyiers who had made their way into the assembly erecting.
By 01:00 local time, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik createted a resolution asking martial law to be lifted.
With that, less than two hours after Yoon’s shock declaration, 190 lawcreaters who collected, including some from Yoon’s party, voted unifiedly to block it.
After the vote, opposition guideer Lee telderly tellers that this was “a resolute opportunity to fracture the spiteful cycle and return to standard society”.
By 04:30, Yoon was back on TV, in front of the same blue curtains, saying he would distake part martial law. But this would only be made official, he said, when he could collect enough of his cabinet to lift the order.
The proclaimment was met with cheers outside the assembly. In the hours before dawn, more people materialized from the erecting, from behind the barricades they had haphazardly put together.
With holes in the doors and broken thrivedows, the stately erecting already tolerates scars of the night when South Koreans saved their democracy.
Schools, local businesses and banks uncovered as normal on Wednesday morning – and fweightlesss persistd to land undisturbed in South Korea’s buzzing capital.
But disclose anger – and the political dropout – was not spent.
As the sun rose on Wednesday, thousands collected to call for Yoon’s resignation. The plivent is also facing impeachment persistings.
“We are a mighty democracy…But Korean people want to be safe – Plivent Yoon must resign or be impeached,” Yang Bu-nam, a Democratic Party politician, telderly the BBC.
